STACKS 
EX-LIBRIS 


1897 
R  371.103  N277     v.l 

STACKS 


THE   WORK   AND   WORDS 


OF    THE 


NATIONAL   CONGRESS 
OF    MOTHERS 


(FIRST  ANNUAL  SESSION) 


HELD  IN  THE  CITY  OF  WASHINGTON,  D.  C., 
February  77,  18,  and  19, 


INCLUDING   THE  JOURNAL  OF   PROCEEDINGS, 

THE   ADDRESSES   AND   DISCUSSIONS, 

AND   OTHER    MISCELLANY   OF 

THE   MEETINGS 

H 


PUBLISHED    BY    ORDER    OF 

THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS 


m  103  ~n 


230675  SEP181919 


NEW     YOR  K 

D.    APPLETON     AND     COMPANY 
1897 


.     COPYRIGHT,  1897,  BY 
THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


SRLF 
URL 

HQ 


THE  Eeport  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  First  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers  will  be  mailed  on  receipt  of  price — in  paper, 

CORRECTION, 

The  price  of  the  second  edition  is  35  cents  each  for 
the  paper  covered  and  $1.15  each  for  the  cloth  bound 
copies.  Postage  free.  See  page  280. 

unecKs  lor  less  tnan  one  dollar  not  accepted.  Sums  under 
that  amount  payable  in  postal  money  orders  or  stamps.  Checks 
or  money  orders  should  be  made  payable  to  Treasurer  National 
Congress  of  Mothers. 

Price  must  accompany  orders  and  be  sent  to 

SECRETARY  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS, 

WASHINGTON  LOAN  AND  TEUST  BUILDING, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


NOTE. — In  the  Addenda  will  be  found  information  of  interest  to  clubs, 
delegates,  and  to  all  organizations  in  sympathy  with  this  national  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  childhood ;  also  an  explanation  of  the  methods  employed 
to  meet  the  heavy  expenses  of  this  rapidly  growing  work. 

No  advertising  matter  of  any  character  will  be  accepted. 


in 


COPYRIGHT,  1897,  BY 
THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


SRLF 
URL 

Ha 


THE  Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  First  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers  will  be  mailed  on  receipt  of  price — in  paper, 
twenty-five  cents,  and  ten  cents  additional  for  postage;  in  cloth, 
one  dollar,  fifteen  cents  additional  for  postage. 

In  response  to  numerous  requests,  copies,  in  pamphlet  form, 
of  all  addresses  delivered  at  the  First  National  Congress  of 
Mothers  will  be  mailed  postpaid  for  five  cents  each,  or  four 
dollars  per  hundred. 

Checks  for  less  than  one  dollar  not  accepted.  Sums  under 
that  amount  payable  in  postal  money  orders  or  stamps.  Checks 
or  money  orders  should  be  made  payable  to  Treasurer  National 
Congress  of  Mothers. 

Price  must  accompany  orders  and  be  sent  to 

SECRETARY  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS, 

WASHINGTON  LOAN  AND  TEUST  BUILDING, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 


NOTE. — In  the  Addenda  will  be  found  information  of  interest  to  clubs, 
delegates,  and  to  all  organizations  in  sympathy  with  this  national  move- 
ment in  behalf  of  childhood ;  also  an  explanation  of  the  methods  employed 
to  meet  the  heavy  expenses  of  this  rapidly  growing  work. 

No  advertising  matter  of  any  character  will  be  accepted. 


PREFACE. 


THIS  Report  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  First  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers,  held  in  Washington,  D.  C.,  February  17th, 
18th,  and  19th,  is  offered  to  the  public  with  the  statement  that 
from  this  initial  conference  much  that  will  prove  of  inestimable 
value  to  the  work  was  learned  which  will  doubtless  inure  to 
the  greater  welfare  and  wider  influence  of  future  Congresses. 
Truly  grateful  for  the  hearty  response  which  was  manifest  by 
the  large  attendance  drawn  from  all  parts  of  our  country,  the 
report  is  printed  as  a  slight  token  of  our  appreciation  for  the 
generous  co-operation  of  the  clubs,  organizations,  and  individ- 
uals who  came,  some  of  them  from  great  distances  and  at  great 
expense,  to  attend  the  Congress.  The  enthusiasm  and  inspira- 
tion of  the  meetings  were  largely  due  to  the  constant  presence 
and  undivided  attention  of  these  delegates.  Aside  from  their 
numbers,  the  large  correspondence  with  those  who  could  not 
come  and  yet  who  wish  to  know  of  the  Congress,  what  was  said, 
what  was  done,  and  what  is  to  T)e  done,  furnishes  us  with  still  a 
second  and  larger  audience. 

For  the  benefit  of  all  these  the  report  has  been  prepared. 
The  special  essays  and  the  extempore  addresses  have  been  gath- 
ered together  and  stand  classified  in  this  volume,  that  they  may 
become  a  ready  reference  for  clubs  studying  upon  parallel  lines. 
The  programme  as  presented  at  the  Congress  is  reprinted  here, 
not  omitting  the  appropriate  and  beautiful  quotations  which 
adorned  its  pages.  In  the  Appendix  may  be  found  a  commen- 
tary on  the  Congress,  since  it  is  impossible  to  enlarge  the  report 
sufficiently  to  include  all  of  the  excellent  words  delivered  in  the 
side  conferences.  Stenographic  reports  were  not  made  at  these 
branch  meetings,  but  a  few  papers  were  submitted,  which  the 
Board  of  Officers  may  sometime  decide  to  print  as  leaflets  for 
distribution  on  demand. 


vi  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

There  may  also  be  found  in  the  Appendix  the  resolutions 
which  were  adopted  by  the  board  and  the  delegates  at  the  close 
of  the  Congress;  the  Declaration  of  Principles  of  the  Congress 
and  some  plan  of  organization,  with  a  promise  of  further  details 
to  be  sent  out  on  application  in  the  early  fall;  the  List  of  Dele- 
gates with  addresses;  also  of  clubs  and  organizations  having 
departments  of  study  germane  to  the  purposes  of  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers. 

The  results  of  the  first  Congress  of  Mothers  were  more  than 
gratifying.  That  the  effort  was  a  grand  one  all  were  agreed. 
If,  in  any  particular,  expectation  was  disappointed,  if  the  report 
of  proceedings  be  in  any  respect  open  to  criticism,  we  ask  the 
reader  to  remember  that  in  each  and  every  instance  only  the 
noblest  and  most  disinterested  motives  have  actuated  all  who 
have  participated  in  this  work,  from  the  inception  of  the  idea  by 
the  President,  Mrs.  Theodore  W.  Birney  (who  first  presented 
the  outline  of  her  plan  before  the  New  York  Chautauqua  of 
1895)  to  the  last  speaker  on  the  programme  of  the  Congress. 

Miss  Janet  E.  Kichards,  of  Washington,  D.  C.,  at  Mrs. 
Birney*s  request,  read  the  first  official  call  to  the  Mothers'  Con- 
gress before  the  biennial  of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's 
Clubs  at  Louisville,  Ky.,  on  May  28,  1896. 

A  similar  call  was  presented  by  Mrs.  Ellen  A.  Richardson 
before  the  Home  Congress  at  Boston  in  October,  1896. 

In  addition  to  these  specific  calls,  circulars  and  press  notices 
were  kept  constantly  before  the  public  until  the  Congress  con- 
vened, when  those  who  came  to  listen  and  to  serve  gathered  in 
such  overwhelming  numbers  that  no  one  building  in  Washing- 
ton could  hold  them  all. 

The  power  that  worked  this  result  was  the  power  of  love 
and  the  might  of  need.  That  same  power  still  sways  and  the 
needs  are  yet  unsatisfied. 

In  a  spirit  of  love  and  helpfulness  we  therefore  send  forth 
this  record  of  the  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  trusting 
that  it  may  find  a  responsive  echo  in  all  hearts,  and  that  a  higher 
wisdom  may  guide  us  to  a  fuller  fruition  in  the  future  work  of 
the  National  Congress  of  Mothers. 
May,  1897. 


OFFICIAL  CALL  TO 
FIRST  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS.* 


THE  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers  will  be  held  in  the 
Banquet  Hall  of  the  Arlington  Hotel,  Washington,  D.  C.,  Febru- 
ary 17,  18,  19,  1897.  Washington  has  been  selected  as  the  most 
fitting  place  for  such  an  assemblage  because  the  movement  is 
one  of  national  importance,  and  because  the  city  offers  many 
advantages  in  other  ways. 

The  originator  of  the  present  project,  believing  in  the  neces- 
sity for  organized  and  earnest  effort  on  the  part  of  the  mothers 
of  the  land  concerning  questions  most  vital  to  the  welfare  of 
their  children  and  the  manifold  interests  of  the  home,  presented 
the  subject  at  some  of  the  Mothers'  Meetings  at  Chautauqua 
in  the  summer  of  1895.  The  earnest  enthusiasm  with  which  it 
was  received  made  it  evident  that  the  thought  needed  only  to 
be  disseminated  in  order  to  be  quickly  accepted  and  acted  upon 
by  hosts  of  conscientious,  thinking  women  throughout  the  world, 
and  to  result  in  a  centralization  of  their  power  toward  the  ac- 
complishment of  great  and  necessary  reforms  in  the  interest  of 
humanity. 

It  is  universally  admitted  that  feminine  influence  has  been 
a  mighty  factor  for  good  in  all  ages,  and  therefore  incalculable 
benefit  may  be  expected  from  the  assembling  of  many  women 
for  the  interchange  of  views  and  the  study  of  home  problems 
which  can  be  solved  by  woman  alone. 

*  The  above  contains  the  subject  matter  of  a  leaflet  distributed  through- 
out the  country  prior  to  Feb.  17,  1896,  and  is  printed  in  response  to  many 
inquiries  concerning  the  initial  steps  toward  the  organization  of  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers. 

vii 


viii  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

It  is  proposed  to  have  the  Congress  consider  subjects  bearing 
upon  the  better  and  broader  spiritual  and  physical,  as  well  as 
mental  training  of  the  young,  such  as  the  value  of  kindergarten 
work  and  the  extension  of  its  principles  to  more  advanced 
studies,  a  love  of  humanity  and  of  country,  the  physical  and 
mental  evils  resulting  from  some  of  the  present  methods  of  our 
schools,  and  the  advantages  to  follow  from  a  closer  relation 
between  the  influence  of  the  home  and  that  of  institutions  of 
learning.  Of  special  importance  will  be  the  subject  of  the 
means  of  developing  in  children  characteristics  which  will  ele- 
vate and  ennoble  them,  and  thus  assist  in  overcoming  the  con- 
ditions which  now  prompt  crime,  and  make  necessary  the  main- 
tenance of  jails,  workhouses,  and  reformatories. 

These  matters  will  be  presented  to  the  Congress  by  men  and 
women  foremost  in  such  work  and  whose  names  are  everywhere 
known  and  revered. 

As  the  time  intervening  between  this  and  the  Mothers'  Con- 
gress is  comparatively  brief,  it  behooves  all  who  feel  an  interest 
in  the  cause  to  be  up  and  doing.  The  plan  of  procedure  is  sim- 
ple. Every  city  and  town  and  village  has  its  organizations  and 
clubs  for  various  purposes.  Let  each  one  of  these  call  a  special 
meeting  and  form  a  mothers'  club  in  which  all  can  unite.  We 
will  furnish,  on  application  from  the  secretary  of  such  clubs, 
suggestions  which  may  prove  helpful  in  the  conduct  of  the 
meetings,  which  should  be  held  every  week  for  awhile,  if  possi- 
ble, in  order  that  the  need  for  this  work  may  be  clearly  set  forth 
and  that  delegates  may  be  decided  upon  for  the  National  Con- 
gress in  February.  It  is  desired  that  all  who  can  will  attend 
the  national  meeting;  but  as  it  is  possible  that  only  a  minor  pro- 
portion of  the  mothers  will  be  able  to  come,  it  is  essential  for 
each  organization  to  send  at  least  one  delegate,  who  can  carry 
back  a  detailed  account  of  the  meetings,  and  be  prepared  to  in- 
struct the  home  club  in  the  methods  to  be  pursued  for  ensuing 
years,  it  being  a  part  of  the  plan  to  have  the  national  organiza- 
tion hold  regular  annual  meetings  hereafter. 

It  is  our  expectation  to  have  such  a  gathering  of  representa- 
tive workers  for  the  benefit  of  the  human  race  that  the  divine 
fire  of  their  enthusiasm  will  warm  the  hearts  not  only  of  all 


OFFICIAL  CALL.  ix 

mothers,  but  of  all  mankind,  to  an  appreciation  of  the  sacred 
obligations  owed  to  the  race  through  the  children  of  to-day  and 
the  generations  to  come.  Among  these  will  be  many  who  are 
not  mothers,  but  who,  through  their  works,  have  shown  them- 
selves possessed  of  the  maternal  instinct  in  its  highest  and  holiest 
sense,  and  who  will  therefore  be  most  welcome. 

Everything  will  be  done  to  make  the  expenses  of  those  at- 
tending the  meeting  as  light  as  possible.  Application  has  been 
made  to  the  various  railway  associations  for  reduced  rates,  advice 
of  which  will  be  sent  later.  Special  rates  will  be  given  by  the 
hotels,  suitable  boarding  places  at  reasonable  prices  will  be  se- 
cured in  advance  by  the  local  committee,  and  many  houses  will 
be  open  for  the  entertainment  of  delegates  as  guests.  The  im- 
mediate expenses  incident  to  the  practical  inauguration  of  this 
great  project  have  been  provided  by  a  friend  of  the  movement. 


CONTENTS. 


PROGRAMME  1 

OPENING  PRAYER.  (Rev.  W.  H.  Millburn) 5 

ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  (Mrs.  Then.  W.  Birney) 6 

RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  (Mrs.  Mary  Low  Dickinson)  .  11 

PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  (Frank  Hamilton  Gushing)  ....  21 
MOTHERS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WORLD.  DAY  NURSERIES.  (Mrs.  Lucy  S. 

Bainbridge) 47 

WHAT  THE  KINDERGARTEN  MEANS  TO  MOTHERS.  (Miss  Amalie  Hofer)  .  55 
PARENTAL  REVERENCE  AS  TAUGHT  IN  THE  HEBREW  HOME.  (Mrs.  Re- 

bekah  Kohut) 61 

THE  AFRO-AMERICAN  MOTHER.  (Mrs.  Ellen  W.  Harper)  .  .  .  67 

MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS.  (Mrs.  Wilbur  F.  Crafts)  ....  72 
THE  VALUE  OF  Music  IN  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.  (Rev.  W. 

A.  Bartlett) 80 

MOTHERS  TO  THE  MOTHERLESS.  (Mrs.  Maud  Ballington  Booth)  .  .  93 

DIETETICS.  (Mrs.  Louise  E.  Hogan) .  101 

MOTHER'S  RELATION  TO  THE  SOUND  PHYSICAL  DEVELOPMENT  OF  HER 

CHILD.  (Mrs.  A.  Jennesse  Miller) 117 

REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW.  (Mrs.  Alice  Lee  Moque)  .  .  123 
THE  MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.  (Mrs.  Helen  M. 

Gardener) .  .  .  130 

THE  MOTHER'S  GREATEST  NEEDS.  (Miss  Frances  Newton)  .  .  .  148 
PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  (Miss  Constance  Mackenzie)  .  .  .  .155 

SOME  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OF  CHILD  STUDY.  (Dr.  G.  Stanley  Hall)  .  165 

READING  COURSES  FOR  MOTHERS.  (Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Sangster)  .  .  171 
How  TO  GUARD  OUR  YOUTH  AGAINST  BAD  LITERATURE.  (Anthony 

Comstock)  . 177 

OUR  RESPONSIBILITY.  (Mrs.  H.  A.  Stimson) 181 

HEREDITY.  (Mrs.  W.  A.  Felton) 184 

PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  (Miss  Julia  King)  . 103 

CHARACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION.  (Mrs.  Ellen  A.  Richardson)  .  200 
A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.  (Mrs.  Sallie  S.  Cotton)  .  20-^ 
NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE  HOME.  (Miss  Anna  A.  Schryver)  .  .  .  220 
THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  BRINGING  YOUTH  IN  TOUCH  WITH  GREAT  LITERA- 
TURE. (Hamilton  W.  Mabie) 220 

xi 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


STORIES  AND  STORY  TELLING.    (Dr.  Walter  L.  Hervey)  ....  234 

THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.     (Prof.  Elmer  Gates)  .        .        .        .241 

ORGANIZATION.     (Mrs.  Ellen  M.  Henrotin)       ......  251 

APPENDIX  .............  255 

LIST  OF  DELEGATES  ...........  258 

GREETINGS         ......  ........  268 

COMMITTEE  ON  RESOLUTIONS      .........  269 

RESOLUTIONS  ADOPTED  AT  THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS    .        .  269 

DECLARATION  OF  PRINCIPLES  OF  THE  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS  .  273 

LIST  OF  BOOKS  ............  275 

ADDENDA  TO  SECOND  EDITION.    (Suggestions  to  clubs,  delegates,  etc.)  .  281 


THE   FIRST 
NATIONAL   CONGRESS   OF   MOTHERS, 

FEBRUARY  17,  18,  19,  1897. 

BANQUET  HALL,  ARLINGTON  HOTEL, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

OFFICERS. 
PRESIDENT. 

Mrs.  Theodore  W.  Birney. 

VICE-PRESIDENTS.  VICE-PRESIDENTS. 

Mrs.  Adlai  Stevenson.  Mrs.  Phebe  A.  Hearst. 

Mrs.  John  R.  Lewis.  Mrs.  Mary  E.  Mumford. 

CORRESPONDING    SECRETARY.  TREASURER. 

Miss  Mary  Louisa  Butler.  Miss  Emma  Morton. 

CHAIRMEN    OF  COMMITTEES. 

Mrs.  Theodore  W.  Birney.  Mrs.  William  L.  Wilson. 

Mrs.  H.  W.  Fuller.  Mrs.  James  H.  McGill. 

Mrs.  A.  A.  Birney.  Mrs.  Harriet  A.  McLellan. 

Mrs.  Henry  J.  Finley. 


"A  baby :   a  tiny  feather  from   the  wing  of  love  dropped  in   the  sacred  lap  of 
motherhood.'1'' 

WEDNESDAY  MORNING,  10  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Prayer. 

Rev.  W.  H.  MILBURN. 
II.  Address  of  Welcome. 

Mrs.  THEODORE  W.  BIRNEY,  Washington,  D.  C. 

III.  Response. 

Mrs.  MARY  LOWE  DICKINSON,  New  York  city. 

IV.  Reception  by  Mrs.  Cleveland  at  the  White  House. 

"  The  destiny  of  nations  lies  far  more  in  the  hands  of  women— the  mothers— than  in 
flie  possessors  of  power." 

1 


2  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

"It  is  impossible  to  give  a  sound  intellectual  education  to  a  child  .who  has  not  a  true 
moral  development :  and  a  child  can  not  have  that  who  is  separated  from  other  children 
and  led  to  imagine  himself  as  having  a  superior  nature." 

WEDNESDAY  AFTERNOON,  2:30  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Mother  and  Child  of  the  Primitive  World. 

FRANK  HAMILTON  GUSHING,  Washington,  D.  C. 
II.  (a)  Mothers  of  the  Submerged  World; 
(b)  Day  Nurseries. 

Mrs.  LUCY  S.  BAINBRIDGE,  New  York  city. 

III.  What  the  Kindergarten  means  to  Mothers. 

Miss  AMALIE  HOFER,  Chicago,  111. 

IV.  Parental  Reverence  as  taught  in  the  Hebrew  Homes. 

Mrs.  REBEKAH  KOHUT,  New  York  city. 

WEDNESDAY  EVENING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Mothers  and  Schools. 

Mrs.  W.  F.  CRAFTS,  Washington,  D.  C. 
II.  The  Value  of  Music  in  the  Development  of  Character. 
Rev.  W.  A.  BARTLETT,  Lowell,  Mass. 

"True  glory  consists  in  so  living  as  to  make  the  world  happier  and  better  for  our 
living." 

"A  baby:  that  which  makes  home  happier,  love  stronger,  patience  greater,  hands 
busier,  nights  longer,  days  shorter,  the  past  forgotten,  the  future  brighter." 

THURSDAY  MORNING,  10:30  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Devotional. 

Mrs.  MAUD  BALLINGTON  BOOTH,  New  York  city. 
II.  Dietetics. 

Mrs.  LOUISE  E.  HOGAN,  Germantown,  Pa. 

III.  Mother's  Relation  to  the  Sound  Physical  Development 

of  her  Child. 

Mrs.  A.  JENNESSE  MILLER,  Washington,  D.  C. 

IV.  Reproduction  and  Natural  Law. 

Mrs.  ALICE  LEE  MOQUE,  Washington,  D.  C. 

V.  The  Moral  Responsibility  of  Women  in  Heredity. 

Mrs.  HELEN  H.  GARDENER,  Boston,  Mass. 

"  Go,  make  thy  garden  as  fair  as  thou  canst, 

Thou  workest  never  alone  ; 
Perchance  he  whose  plot  is  next  to  thine 
Will  see  it  and  mend  his  own." 


PROGRAMME.  3 

"Let  the  very  playthings  of  your  children  have  a  tearing  iipon  the  life  and  work 
of  the  coming  man ;  it  is  early  training  that  makes  the  master.'''1 

THURSDAY  AFTERNOON,  2:30  O'CLOCK. 

I.  The  Mother's  Greatest  Needs. 

Miss  FRANCES  NEWTON,  Chicago,  111. 
II.  Playgrounds. 

Miss  CONSTANCE  MACKENZIE,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
III.  Some  Practical  Results  of  Child  Study. 

Dr.  G.  STANLEY  HALL,  Worcester,  Mass. 

"  To  play,  to  build,  to  construct,  are  the  first  tender  flowers  of  a  child's  life.'1'' 


"If  you  would  see  a  reflection  of  your  own  life,  look  at  the  life  of  your  little  child. 
If  you  would  set  a  right  copy  you  must  follow  the  life  of  Christ.  Let  his  life  shine 
through  your  life  and  illuminate  it,  since  you  will  not  stand  nor  fall  alone." 

THURSDAY  EVENING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Reading  Courses  for  Mothers. 

Mrs.  MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER,  New  York  city. 
II.  Presentation  of  Resolutions. 

PRESS  COMMITTEE  WOMEN  FRIENDS,  Baltimore,  Md. 
III.  How  to  Guard  our  Youth  against  Bad  Literature. 
ANTHONY  COMSTOCK,  New  York  city. 

"  We  dream  of  doing  great  things  when  we  have  need  only  to  be  content  with  doing 
little  things  close  at  hand." 

"Life  is  half  spent  before  ive  know  what  it  is." 


"She  is  only  half  a*mother  ivho  does  not  see  her  own  child  in  every  child— her  own 
child's  grief  in  every  pain  which  makes  another  child  weep." 

"Mother  is  the  name  of  God  in  the  heart  and  lips  of  little  children." 

FRIDAY  MORNING,  10:30  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Devotional. 

Mrs.  H.  A.  STIMSON,  New  York  city. 
II.  Heredity. 

Mrs.  W.  H.  FELTON,  Cartersville,  Ga. 

III.  Physical  Culture. 

Miss  JULIA  KING,  Boston,  Mass. 

IV.  Character  building  in  Education. 

Mrs.  ELLEN  RICHARDSON,  Boston,  Mass. 
V.  National  Training  School  for  Women. 

Mrs.  SALLIE  S.  GOTTEN,  Falkland,  N.  C. 

"  Character  can  not  be  talked  into  or  taught  into  a  child;  it  must  be  lived  into  him." 
"Do  you  realize  that  many  habits  and  much  of  your  baby's  character  is  formed  in 
the  cradle?" 


4  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

"  Of  all  the  burdens  of  childhood  the  greatest  and  most  frequent  is  that  of  being 
doubted." 

"  There  is  more  danger  of  a  parent's  hindering  a  child  than  of  a  child's  hindering 
a  parent.  And  the  hindering  that  a  parent  can  do  is  a  thousand  times  more  harmful 
than  any  hindering  that  can  be  done  by  the  child." 

FRIDAY  AFTERNOON,  2:30  O'CLOCK. 

I.  Nature  Studies  in  the  Home. 

Miss  ANNA  A.  SCHRYVER,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 
II.  Importance  of  bringing  the  Youth  in  Touch  with  Great 
Literature. 

Mr.  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,  New  York  city. 
III.  Stories. 

Dr.  WALTER  L.  HERVEY,  New  York  city. 

"  The  child  is  the  hope  of  the  race." 

"Love  is  most  divine  when  it  loves  according  to  needs  and  not  according  to  merit." 


"  The  clearer  the  thread  which  runs  through  our  lives  backward — back  to  our  child- 
hood—the clearer  ivill  be  our  onward  glance  to  the  goal." 

FRIDAY  EVENING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

I.  How  shall  the  Nation  secure  Educated  Mothers  ? 

Mrs.  STANTON  BLATCH,  New  York  city. 
II.  Club  Organization: 

(a)  Need  of  Organization ; 

(b)  How  Organize? 

Mrs.  ELLEN  M.  HENROTIN.  Chicago,  111. 

"It  seems  wonderful  how  much  the  memory  retains  and  hwio  our  thoughts  can  call 
it  all  up  at  different  times.  A  great  deal  often  remains  that  is  useless,  and  this  should 
be  a  warning  to  us  to  give  the  child  the  best  that  ice  possibly  can." 

"Nothing,  perhaps,  has  been  more  misunderstood  than  childhood.'1'1 


330675 


WEDNESDAY  MORNING,  10  O'CLOCK. 
OPENING  PKAYEK. 

BY  REV.  WILLIAM  H.  MILBUBN/A     ' 

Chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate.^/- 

0  thou,  whose  well-beloved  Son  took  the  little  children  into 
his  arms  and  blessed  them,  and  the  mothers  that  brought  them, 
representing  the  infinite  tenderness  and  compassion  of  the  Al- 
mighty and  everlasting  Euler  of  the  Universe,  we  come  to  thee 
to-day  to  ask  thy  blessing  upon  this  gathering  of  women  from 
all  over  our  land  and  from  other  lands — this  gathering  to  con- 
sider woman's  deepest  problem,  highest  duty,  sweetest  grace, 
divinest  benediction.  We  pray  that  thine  infinite  love  may 
swell  every  heart,  kindling  an  enthusiasm  which  shall  never  de- 
cline, an  enthusiasm  for  woman's  highest  work,  an  enthusiasm 
that  shall  manifest  itself  m  the  grace  and  care  of  the  little  ones. 
The  mother  is  the  maker  of  the  child's  life,  the  shaper  and 
builder  of  its  destiny. 

0  God,  inspire  this  gathering  of  women,  and  through  them, 
and  by  the  influence  of  thy  Holy  Spirit,  the  women  all  through 
this  nation,  and  hence  to  other  nations,  until  it  shall  be  the 
glorious  crusade  of  this  closing  century  and  at  the  opening  of 
the  next,  not  the  rescue  of  a  tomb  from  the  grasp  of  infidels 
who  hold  it,  but  the  rescue  of  the  cradle  of  childhood  from  the 
evil  influences  which  have  encompassed  it,  and  its  uplifting, 
under  the  benediction  of  the  cross,  to  the  resurrection  and  the 
eternal  life  which  are  granted  unto  us  all  as  the  children  of 
the  most  high  God. 

Keep  these  women  in  peace,  in  health,  in  comfort,  in  true 
wealth,  prosper  them  in  their  deliberations,  and  send  them  to 
their  homes  again  with  the  grace  and  blessing  of  this  great 
gathering  and  the  influences  enkindled  by  it.  We  humbly  ask 
all  these  blessings  in  the  name  and  through  the  merits  of  our 
divine  Lord  and  Master.  Amen. 
2  5 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


ADDKESS  OF  WELCOME. 

BY  MRS.  THEODORE  W.  BIRNEY, 

President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  Washington,  D.  C.,  February  17,  1897. 

GENTLEMEN  AND  LADIES:  In  coming  before  you  as  the 
President  of  the  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  it  is  my 
pleasure  and  privilege  to  extend  to  each  and  all  of  you  a  heart- 
felt welcome,  and  to  express  the  hope  that  this  large  and  gratify- 
ing audience,  this  more  than  encouraging  response  to  our  uni- 
versal call,  may  prove  an  earnest  of  the  success  destined  to 
crown  the  work  to  which  our  best  and  highest  efforts  are  now 
consecrated.  While  I  welcome  you,  I  recall  the  mass  of  printed 
matter  which  has  preceded  this  Congress — I  refer  to  the  detailed 
accounts  of  this  movement  which  have  been  presented  to  the 
reading  public,  both  through  the  medium  of  the  daily  press 
and  by  the  means  of  the  literature  which  has  been  freely  dis- 
tributed from  our  headquarters;  yet/  despite  the  full  and  gen- 
erous statements  which  have  thus  been  given,  the  inquiry  still 
comes,  "  What  is  the  Mothers'  Congress?  What  are  its  aims  and 
objects?" 

Doubtless  each  one  present  has  some  idea,  more  or  less  defi- 
nite, as  to  the  general  object  of  the  Congress,  but  still  the  ques- 
tion is  repeated  what  and  how  do  we  expect  to  accomplish  it. 

To  answer  this  and  kindred  questions  briefly  and  clearly, 
and  at  the  same  time  to  impress  you  fully  with  what  we  deem 
to  be  the  importance  of  this  work,  shall  be  my  purpose  this 
morning. 

First,  then,  as  to  our  object:  The  age  in  which  we  live  is,  as 
every  one  knows,  an  age  of  "  movements " — it  is  a  time  of 
specialized  work  and  of  organized  effort.  Every  conceivable  in- 
terest, from  the  clothing  of  the  Hottentot  to  the  study  of  oc- 
cultism, has  been  the  subject  of  attention,  of  inquiry,  and  often 
of  organization. 

It  has  therefore  seemed  to  us  good  and  fitting  that  the  high- 
est and  holiest  of  all  missions — motherhood — the  family  interest 


ADDEESS  OF  WELCOME.  7 

upon  which  rests  the  entire  superstructure  of  human  life — and 
the  element  which  may  indeed  be  designated  as  the  foundation 
of  the  entire  social  fabric,  should  now  be  the  subject  of  our 
earnest  and  reverent  consideration.  I  refer  to  what  is  called 
child  study — that  broad,  deep  theme,  most  worthy,  in  all  its 
varying  phases,  of  our  study  and  attention,  because  the  funda- 
mental one. 

This  is  a  time  known  pre-eminently  in  the  history  of  the 
world  as  "  woman's  era."  Much  has  been  said  and  written  in 
these  latter  days  about  woman's  higher  education  and  her  ex- 
tended opportunities,  so  much  that  we  have  failed  to  hear  the 
small  voice  appealing  to  us  in  behalf  of  childhood;  yet  how,  I 
ask,  can  we  divorce  the  woman  question  from  the  child  ques- 
tion? Is  not  the  one  the  natural,  logical  corollary  of  the  other? 
Let  us  then  consider  for  a  moment  some  of  the  needs  of  child- 
hood. 

There  is  good  literature,  many  books  and  articles  pertaining 
to  child  culture  and  kindred  topics,  pre-eminent  among  them 
the  thoughts  given  to  us  by  that  friend  and  benefactor,  the 
great  and  good  Froebel.  When  a  mother  in  her  own  home  ap- 
plies what  she  may  learn  from  these  books,  reverently  studying 
the  threefold  nature  of  the  immortal  being  committed  to  her 
care,  she  will  acquire  the  truest,  finest  culture  the  world  can 
offer,  and  then  knowledge  will  be  added  to  love,  mother-patience, 
and  gentleness — attributes  which  transcend  all  learning. 

It  is  because  most  women  have  not  had  the  knowledge  and 
training  which  would  enable  them  to  evolve  the  beautiful  possi- 
bilities of  home  life  that  they  have  in  many  instances  found  that 
sphere  narrow  and  monotonous. 

Now  that  reform  is  being  effected  in  the  domestic  depart- 
ment of  home  by  the  establishment  of  schools  where  servants 
can  be  properly  trained,  and  by  the  lifting  of  household  and 
kitchen  work  from  the  realm  of  drudgery  to  that  of  science, 
there  is  a  fair  prospect  of  more  bodily  rest  for  mothers,  more 
time  for  study  and  recreation  helpful  to  mind  and  body. 

The  higher  branches  of  book  learning  are  well  enough  for 
the  girl  or  woman  who  has  the  inclination  or  time  for  them, 
but  they  should  be  secondary  in  her  education  to  the  knowledge 


8  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

which  shall  fit  her  for  motherhood.  True,  she  may  never  marry  j 
but,  as  one  of  the  sex  on  which  the  care  and  education  of  child- 
hood must  rest,  she  should  know  how  with  head,  heart,  and 
hand  to  serve  the  cause  of  helpless  infancy  in  any  emergency. 

Is  it  probable  that  a  boy  of  twelve,  who  has  had  the  ideal 
life  of  the  kindergarten,  followed  by  a  course  of  instruction  in 
which  the  proper  development  of  the  child's  nature  was  made 
equally  important  with  mathematics,  would  be  a  terror  to  his 
home?  Would  he  fill  his  little  sister's  heart  with  truly  maternal 
anguish  by  pretending  to  torture  her  doll  or  drive  his  little 
brother  to  tears  and  angry  words  by  persistent  teasing?  "  Tri- 
fles," people  say;  *but  these  habits  are  no  trifles  in  the  building 
of  character.  All  too  soon  the  plastic  period  of  childhood  is 
over,  and  too  often,  alas!  health,  strength  of  physique,  and 
strength  and  sweetness  of  character  are  sacrificed  to  indifference 
in  training  and  education  if  character  building  has  been  sub- 
ordinated to  the  so-called  cultivation  of  the  mind. 

How  strangely  the  world  has  worked!  How  at  variance  with 
all  natural  law!  For  every  kindergarten  there  are  a  hundred, 
nay,  a  thousand  prisons,  jails,  reformatories,  asylums,  and  hos- 
pitals. And  yet  society  cries  out  that  there  is  need  for  more 
of  these.  Are  we  blind  that  we  fail,  as  a  nation,  a  State,  and  as 
individuals,  to  recognize  the  incontrovertible  fact  that  such  de- 
mand will  never  cease  until  we  cut  off  the  supply?  And  does 
it  not  behoove  us  to  work  with  a  will  and  together,  that  the 
little  ones  of  to-day  may  not  require  such  training  as  civilization 
offers  through  its  police  and  courts  of  law  in  place  of  the  kinder- 
garten schools. 

Reformers  are  often  called  visionary  because  of  their  ex- 
pressed belief  that  rapid  changes  could  be  brought  about  if  cer- 
tain practical  plans  were  pursued.  Heredity  has  been  an  argu- 
ment against  such  views,  and  yet  the  medical  faculty,  once  the 
champion  of  physical  heredity,  now  claims  that  "  tendency  "  is 
the  correct  word  to  use,  while  the  world  draws  a  sigh  of  relief, 
and  the  men  and  women  who  have  carried  in  their  hearts  the 
gnawing  fear  of  inherited  evils  imbibe  fresh  courage  and  listen 
eagerly  to  the  methods  by  which  the  evil  tendencies  may  be 
overcome. 


ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  9 

Children  of  so-called  depraved  or  vicious  parents  born  into 
surroundings  which  develop  the  inherited  tendency  to  crime 
should  be  given  a  better  environment  to  secure  improved  results. 
I  could  not  do  better  than  to  quote  from  Jacob  Kiis's  book,  The 
Children  of  the  Poor.  Referring  to  the  wonderful  results 
achieved  by  means  of  the  Children's  Aid  Society  of  New  York 
city,  he  says:  "  It  is  not  at  the  child's  past,  but  at  its  future,  that 
men  look.  That  it  comes  from  among  bad  people  is  the  best 
reason  in  the  world  why  it  should  be  put  among  those  that  are 
good.  That  is  the  one  care  of  the  Society.  Its  faith  that  the 
child  so  placed  will  rise  to  their  level  is  unshaken  after  these 
many  years." 

"  Human  nature "  is  another  fictitious  excuse  to  rapid  progress 
in  bettering  social  conditions.  It  is  claimed  with  zeal  which 
merits  a  nobler  utterance,  "  You  can't  change  human  nature." 
How  old,  how  trite  the  cry,  and  yet  how  false!  Human  nature 
changes  constantly,  and  if  we  doubt  that  it  may  be  changed 
for  the  better,  a  glance  at  the  pages  of  history  will  dispel  such 
doubt. 

Let  us  have  no  more  croaking  as  to  what  can  not  be  done; 
let  us  see  what  can.  be  done,  and,  above  all,  see  that  it  is  done. 

This  is  in  no  sense  a  sex  movement,  nor  has  the  appeal  to 
take  up  this  child  culture  and  kindred  topics  been  made  to 
mothers  alone.  Men  have  a  thousand  imperative  outside  inter- 
ests and  pursuits,  while  Nature  has  set  her  seal  upon  woman 
as  the  caretaker  of  the  child;  therefore  it  is  natural  that  woman 
should  lead  in  awakening  mankind  to  a  sense  of  the  responsi- 
bilities resting  upon  the  race  to  provide  each  new-born  soul  with 
an  environment  which  will  foster  its  highest  development. 

Our  plan  of  work  is  exceedingly  simple,  and  is  clearly  out- 
lined in  our  pamphlet  Suggestions  for  Mothers'  Clubs,  which 
will  be  found  in  the  literature  room  in  the  rear  of  the  hall.  We 
ask  all  those  who  have  not  carefully  read  this  circular  to  do  so, 
if  possible,  before  the  afternoon  session. 

There  are  many  in  this  audience  who  have  come  a  great  dis- 
tance to  attend  this  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  while 
many  of  you  are  from  neighboring  cities.  That  this  Congress 
(which  we  all  feel  must  mark  an  epoch  in  the  individual  lives 


10  NATIONAL  CONGEESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

of  those  at  least  who  attend)  has  been  possible  is  due  to  the 
noble  generosity  of  a  woman  whose  intellectual  grasp  of  human- 
ity's greatest  needs  have  numbered  her  for  many  years  among 
America's  truest  philanthropists.  I  refer  to  our  first  Vice-Presi- 
dent, Mrs.  Phebe  Hearst. 

You  have  come  with  full  hearts  and  high  hopes,  and  with 
such  we  greet  you.  Bachelor  or  maid,  father  or  mother,  you 
are  all  most  welcome.  The  love  of  childhood  is  a  common  tie, 
which  should  unite  us  in  holiest  purpose,  and  on  this  common 
ground  of  our  beautiful  national  capital  let  us  devote  our  best 
efforts  during  these  three  days  to  a  prayerful  consideration  of 
our  highest  objects,  and  go  forth  determined  to  bring  the  work 
to  full  fruition. 

The  women  who  have  for  weeks  past  with  tireless  energy 
and  enthusiasm  given  their  time  and  strength  to  this  cause 
need  no  words  of  thanks  from  me,  with  such  an  audience  as  this 
facing  them,  beautiful  in  its  earnestness  and  inspiration. 

The  mental  attitude  of  the  world  to-day  is  one  of  receptivity; 
never  before  were  people  so  willing  to  accept  new  thought  from 
all  sources.  It  has  been  truly  said,  "  To  cure  was  the  voice  of 
the  past;  to  prevent,  the  divine  whisper  of  to-day." 

May  the  whisper  grow  into  a  mighty  shout  throughout  the 
land  until  all  mankind  takes  it  up  as  the  battle  cry  for  the  clos- 
ing years  of  the  century.  Let  mothers,  fathers,  nurses,  edu- 
cators, ministers,  legislators,  and,  mightiest  of  all  in  its  swift, 
far-reaching  influence,  the  press,  make  the  child  the  watchword 
and  ward  of  the  day  and  hour;  let  all  else  be  secondary,  and 
coming  generations  will  behold  a  new  world  and  a  new  people. 

Untiring,  universal,  individual  effort,  with  such  organiza- 
tion only  as  may  prove  helpful,  will  build  a  bridge  upon  which 
struggling  humanity  may  safely  cross  into  a  new  land,  leaving 
forever  the  old,  with  its  unending  reformatory  movements,  its 
shattered  homes;  and  the  keystone  of  that  bridge  will  be  ma- 
ternal love,  while  in  that  fair  domain  the  splendid  edifice  of  the 
new  civilization  will  bear  the  corner  stone  of  home. 


BESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME. 


KESPONSE  TO  ADDKESS  OF  WELCOME. 

BY  MRS.  MARY  LOWE  DICKINSON, 
President  of  the  National  Council  of  Women,  New  York  City. 

DURING  the  journey  to  Washington  the  question  arose,  "  How 
many  minutes  will  be  granted  for  the  response  to  the  welcome 
offered  by  the  Congress  of  Mothers  to  us  pilgrims  from  near  and 
far?"  In  my  own  mind  I  answered,  "It  will  require  every 
minute  of  the  whole  three  days,  and  then  we  shall  go  home 
laden  with  a  burden  of  unuttered  thanks." 

A  response  to  such  a  royal  welcome  as  has  been  given  us 
is  not  to  be  conveyed  by  any  mere  utterance  of  words.  It  should 
rather  be  counted  out  by  separate  heart  throbs,  beat  on  beat, 
or,  better  still,  our  appreciation  and  gratitude  should  be  meas- 
ured by  the  new  thoughts  we  gather,  the  new  inspirations  we 
receive,  the  new  plans  we  evolve,  the  new  lives  we  touch,  the 
new  hopes  or  purposes  we  bear  away.  Since  these  things  can 
only  be  measured  at  the  time  of  parting,  perhaps  this  word  of 
thanks  should  have  been  one  of  the  last  instead  of  one  of  the 
first  words  on  your  programme.  Indeed,  it  is  a  question  whether 
it  might  not  properly  have  been  deferred  altogether  until  your 
next  convention,  since  no  adequate  thanks  can  precede  an  accu- 
rate knowledge  of  how  much  we  have  to  be  grateful  for,  and 
that  we  never  shall  know  until  the  results  of  this  Congress  have 
been  wrought  out  by  a  multitude  of  mothers,  and  by  varied  meth- 
ods, in  countless  distant  homes. 

Believing,  therefore,  that  the  future  holds  possible  oppor- 
tunities for  better  utterance  than  mine  can  be  to-day,  I  yet  am 
glad  to  speak,  in  behalf  of  these  guests  who  are  here  before  you, 
and  of  many  times  as  many  more  from  the  North  and  the  South, 
the  East  and  the  West,  who,  regretting  that  they  can  not  be  here 
in  person,  yet  would  offer  most  cordial  greetings  and  assurances 
of  all  good  will  and  sympathy  with  the  objects  and  desires  of 
the  Congress.  These  objects  of  the  National  Congress  of  Moth- 
ers are  largely  common  to  our  common  womanhood.  The  feast 


12         NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

to  which  you  have  invited  us  is  primarily  a  feast  of  recognition. 
It  is  a  welcome  to  the  same  spirit  that  has  inspired  this  gather- 
ing, whether  you  find  it  as  the  chief  impulse  in  organized  move- 
ments or  as  the  underlying  motive  of  individual  effort.  And 
the  gracious  courtesy  that  has  welcomed  us  personally  to  your 
firesides  has  offered  also  that  higher  hospitality  that  welcomes 
our  thoughts,  our  convictions,  our  theories,  and  our  opinions 
by  making  them  equally  at  home  with  your  own.  And  in  that 
fact  is  an  assurance  of  results  from  this  Congress  such  as  could 
arise  from  nothing  but  frank  interchange  of  thought  on  the 
part  of  lovers  of  a  common  cause. 

As  women,  as  mothers  especially,  we  would  fain  see  better 
things  in  the  future  that  is  to  be  the  inheritance  of  our  chil- 
dren, and  we  are  constantly  rejoicing  in  the  fact  that  our  civiliza- 
tion shows  that  there  never  before  was  a  time  when  at  the  heart 
of  every  movement,  large  or  small,  lay  such  consideration  for  the 
welfare  of  human  beings  as  to-day. 

Notwithstanding  this,  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  the  whole 
world  groaneth  and  travaileth  in  pain.  Until  now  the  problems 
of  education,  of  labor,  of  philanthropy,  of  politics,  of  religion 
beat  against  the  heart  of  humanity  as  they  beat  against  the 
heart  of  Christ  in  that  far-away  day  when  they  questioned  how 
in  the  midst  of  the  world's  great  misery  could  come  the  kingdom 
of  God.  And,  as  we  have  all  recognized,  down  through  the 
centuries  there  has  come  no  better  answer  than  that  which  shone 
in  the  face  of  a  little  child  whom  "  Jesus  took  and  set  in  the 
midst." 

Amid  the  maze  of  manifold  theories  and  schemes  for  human 
betterment  the  idea  has  been  growing  that  the  answer  to  the 
crowding  problems  of  the  race  lies  in  the  conditions  and  possi- 
ble development  of  the  childhood  of  the  race,  and  every  organ- 
ization and  every  institution  has  begun  to  give  its  share  of  atten- 
tion to  the  development  of  the  child.  Yet  it  has  remained  for 
this  new  society  to  "  take  the  child  and  set  him  in  the  midst," 
making  him  who  is  already  the  center  of  love  the  center  of 
strong  endeavor,  the  key  to  the  closed  gates  of  our  highest 
progress,  the  heart  and  soul  of  our  hope  that  the  world,  becom- 
ing as  a  little  child,  may  yet  enter  the  kingdom  of  God. 


RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  13 

The  spirit  that  inspires  this  Congress  is  near  akin  to  that 
which,  permeating  home  and  church  and  social  life,  has  been 
making  women  write  over  the  portals  of  their  hearts  not  only 
"  Whatsoever  things  are  stylish,"  but  "  Whatsoever  things  are 
helpful,  whatsoever  things  are  pure." 

It  is  the  mother  heart  that  has  shown  itself  in  the  unprece- 
dented growth  of  philanthropic  movements,  in  the  vigorous 
grip  now  being  felt  upon  the  problem  of  poverty  and  pauper- 
ism, in  the  loving  sympathy  with  sickness  and  suffering,  and 
in  its  recognition  of  the  starving  and  blunted  aesthetic  tastes  of 
the  masses.  It  is  that  spirit  that  is  answering  to  the  cry  of  the 
womanhood  and  childhood  of  other  lands  by  thousands  of  tender 
voices  and  myriads  of  helping  hands.  And  do  we  ask  more 
when  it  has  already  made  women  the  foster-mothers  of  every 
moral  movement  of  our  time?  Yes,  more;  and  if  this  new 
society  justifies  its  right  to  be,  we  shall  see  a  day  when  the  out- 
stretched hands  of  mothers  shall  make  an  orphanage  for  the 
whole  world's  childhood,  and  their  beating  hearts  will  form  a 
bulwark  against  every  tide  of  evil  that,  threatening,  dares  to 
creep  to  the  threshold  of  our  homes.  This  being  true,  no  cloud 
of  prejudice  or  precedent  should  hold  back  our  eyes  from  the 
vision,  or  our  hearts  from  bidding  this  new  organization  God- 
speed. It  is  no  child's  play  which  has  been  undertaken. 

In  considering  questions  that  touch  the  welfare  of  the  race, 
the  mind  naturally  dwells  upon  those  that  emanate  from  the 
spirit  and  action  of  men;  the  world  looks  at  manhood  for  the 
destruction  of  its  evil  and  for  the  salvation  and  development 
of  its  good.  Behind  the  everlasting  principles  of  righteousness 
with  which  we  see  our  life  permeated  stands  the  living  man. 
Behind  the  man,  the  environment,  the  history,  the  tradition,  the 
circumstances,  the  education,  the  comradeship  and  experience 
of  youth.  Behind  all  these  are  the  influences  of  childhood, 
motherhood,  and  the  home.  Behind  the  home  and  child  stands 
the  mother.  Here  we  are  at  the  secret  and  heart  of  humanity. 
Now  we  know  the  beginnings  of  manhood.  Mental  scientists 
tell  us  that  the  mind  receives  more  impressions  in  the  first 
few  years  of  childhood  than  in  all  the  after  years  of  life.  During 
this  earlier  period  the  mother  has  her  boy.  Soon  enough  the 


14  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

world  takes  him,  but  it  is  her  voice  and  her  eye  and  her  touch 
that  are  upon  his  mind  and  heart  during  these  formative  stages 
of  being.  In  after  years  he  may  drag  the  chain  of  her  words 
and  her  tender  care  and  her  love  and  her  prayers  through  the 
dust  and  mire  of  every  degradation,  but  he  can  not  break  all 
these  links.  Soon  or  late  he  will  feel  them  tugging  at  his  heart 
and  drawing  him  childward  and  Godward.  The  man  may  hold 
the  destiny  of  the  nation  in  his  hands,  but  the  mother  holds 
the  destiny  of  the  man. 

Co-operation  is  the  watchword  of  the  century.  Not  all  old 
sayings  are  true,  nor  are  the  oldest  sayings  the  truest,  but  there 
is  both  ripeness  of  years  and  power  of  truth  in  the  common 
adage  that  "  In  union  there  is  strength."  "Women  are  proving 
it  by  combination  for  the  moral  welfare  of  the  young,  for  home 
protection,  for  supremacy  of  spiritual  influences — for  whatever, 
in  short,  arouses  their  sympathies,  stimulates  their  aspirations, 
or  offers  a  prize  to  their  hopes. 

With  men  the  power  of  co-operation  is  felt  primarily  in 
outward  and  material  things;  with  women,  in  inward  and  spirit- 
ual concerns.  Men  unite  in  enterprise  with  other  men  who  can 
supply  the  necessary  capital;  women  with  other  women  who  can 
supply  the  necessary  sympathy,  and  the  energies  to  produce 
practical  results  are  required  by  both. 

Concerning  the  influence  of  motherhood,  we  often  hear  it 
quoted  that  "  the  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  is  the  hand  that 
rules  the  world." 

The  truth  of  the  saying  would  be  more  impressive  if  the 
world  to  be  ruled  in  each  generation  were  the  world  that  is  in 
its  infancy.  At  that  stage  rocking  and  ruling  are  synonymous, 
for  the  soothing  that  keeps  the  subject  sleeping  is  giving  it  its 
best  chance  to  grow.  Later  on  it  is  not  soothing  and  sleeping 
that  are  needed,  but  everything  to  waken  faculties,  to  guide  tend- 
encies, to  check  the  lower,  to  develop  the  higher  nature. 

The  mother,  to  remain  the  ruler,  must  also  be  the  leader. 
The  impatient  march  of  young  and  eager  feet  will  not  keep 
time  to  the  strains  of  lullaby.  The  hand  that  tenderly,  through 
fretful  days  and  wakeful  nights,  kept  her  kingdom  in  the  slum- 
ber of  peace  must  be  able  to  grasp  new  scepters  if  she  would  rule 


RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  15 

the  new  world,  that  would  not  be  kept  in  its  cradle,  however 
sweet  her  song. 

In  this  new  day  of  earnest  study,  when  we  too  are  being 
shown  "  the  kingdoms  of  the  world  and  all  the  glory  of  them," 
the  mother's  kingdom,  whose  beauty  and  power  have  rarely  been 
measured  or  displayed,  is  claiming  its  due  of  attention  and 
thought. 

Science,  education,  art,  social  life,  philanthropy,  economics, 
have  each  their  kingdom  and  their  rulers  and  their  laws.  Mother- 
hood, that  underlies  and  overshadows  all,  has  been  the  most 
neglected  of  them  all.  It  is  time  that  they  who  enter  its  sacred 
borders  knew  the  greatness  of  their  inheritance,  the  glory  of  its 
possibilities. 

To  know  her  child's  real  inward  life,  his  inherited  tenden- 
cies, tastes,  habits,  temperament,  temptations,  aspirations,  as  she 
knows  the  outward  facts  of  his  existence,  is  not  only  the  moth- 
er's sacred  privilege,  but  her  high  obligation — to  know  herself 
in  order  that  she  may  know  her  child,  and  the  measure  of  her 
self-knowledge  is  the  measure  of  her  sense  of  responsibility^  If 
you  doubt  that  statement,  that  mothers  will  accept  responsibil- 
ity and  opportunities  up  to  the  limit  of  their  knowledge,  try 
to  enlist  women  in  hearty  co-operation  in  noble  work  for  human- 
ity. You  may  find  possible  failure  to  appreciate  either  the  wide 
extent,  the  profound  importance,  or  the  exalted  possibilities  of 
your  plan.  You  may  find  lack  of  experience,  no  adequate  ap- 
prehension of  true  conditions  of  need  and  supply,  mistaken  views 
as  to  methods  of  work,  misguided,  impulsive,  and  ill-considered 
action;  but  rarely,  if  ever,  will  you  find  resistance  to  sincere  con- 
viction or  withdrawal  from  manifest  right. 

Yet  history  and  observation  and  experience  have  taught 
mothers  a  few  facts.  They  saw  on  every  hand  evils  that  threat- 
ened the  nobility  and  purity  of  their  boys,  and  they  have  learned 
the  fact  that  no  government  ever  rouses  itself  to  restrain  an  evil, 
to  correct  a  wrong,  or  to  restore  a  right  until  driven  to  do  so  by 
the  demand  of  the  people. 

Another  significant  fact  is  this,  that  the  people  will  never 
make  an  effective  demand  for  reform  along  any  line  until  to  the 
majorities  the  need  of  change  is  apparent. 


16  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Another  fact  is  that  the  need  of  reform  can  only  be  made 
apparent  to  the  many  by  the  investigation  of  truth  and  the  dis- 
semination of  knowledge  on  the  part  of  a  few. 

And  another  fact  is  that  the  few  rarely,  if  ever,  begin  to 
investigate  evils  or  to  disseminate  truth  concerning  them  until 
they  have  grown  to  the  proportions  of  gigantic  wrongs. 

When  a  national  evil  becomes  a  national  disgrace,  we  women 
speak  of  it  as  a  burning  shame.  That  ought  to  mean  that  the 
iniquity,  which  alone  makes  the  shame  of  things,  is  under  the 
power  of  a  consuming  or  refining  fire,  and  that  sooner  or  later 
it  will  be  purified  or  it  will  be  destroyed.  Such  a  fire  may  fail 
to  bring  us  to  sackcloth  and  ashes,  but  a  burning  thing  emits 
light  and  shows  depths  of  misery  and  guilt  such  as  at  another 
stage  of  iniquity  would  never  have  been  revealed. 

As  down  through  the  centuries  one  wrong  after  another  has 
moved  on  into  this  catalogue  of  burning  shames,  there  has 
always  been  found  a  few  brave  mothers  to  stand  beside  the  men 
who  were  servants  of  their  country  and  lovers  of  their  kind  and 
to  light  their  torches  in  the  burning,  and  to  go  forth  bearing 
their  light  into  the  world. 

So,  when  evils  crept  in  that  defiled  and  polluted  religion, 
there  were  goodly  mothers  among  the  promoters  of  the  Reforma- 
tion.  So,  when  British  tyranny  threatened  colonial  liberty, 
there  were  mothers  among  the  promoters  of  the  Revolution. 
So,  when  illiteracy  has  seemed  to  blunt  and  paralyze  the  power 
of  the  people,  mothers  have  stood  among  the  fathers  as  evan- 
gels of  education.  So,  when  the  tide  of  intemperance  rises 
till  it  sweeps  across  our  thresholds  and  threatens  the  children 
in  the  cradles,  mothers  are  first  among  the  pioneers  of  pro- 
tection. 

Over  and  over  again  in  the  course  of  our  national  existence 
has  the  same  fact  reappeared.  We  never  grapple  with  begin- 
nings. As  a  people,  we  never  put  forth  our  strength  against  evils 
when  they  are  small.  We  feel  ourselves  to  be  a  nation  young 
and  strong,  and,  like  David,  we  are  not  going  to  the  brook  for 
smooth  stones  for  any  but  a  giant  worthy  of  our  sling.  Not  a 
serpent  that  has  ever  stung  us,  corrupting  our  national  life  with 
its  poisonous  touch,  but  could  have  been  crushed  in  its  infancy — 


RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  17 

even  if  men  had  thought  it  beneath  their  notice — by  the  lifting 
of  the  woman's  heel. 

And  in  that  final  clause  we  have  the  alphabet,  from  which 
may  be  spelled  the  story  of  our  country's  future  weal.  Let  the 
present  wrongs  and  evils  result  as  they  may.  Let  them  grow  to 
be  even  greater  than  they  are.  If  each  American  mother  can 
rear  her  boy  to  see  the  giants  in  all  their  hideousness,  and  to 
feel  that  he  is  to  be  the  hero  that  is  to  help  to  overcome  them 
one  by  one — if  she  can  help  him  choose  the  smooth  pebbles  of 
truth  that  the  current  of  swift-running  events  will  always  sup- 
ply, teach  him  to  hold  the  sling  of  courage  with  steady  hand, 
then  we  shall  have  a  foundation  that  would  make  the  mother's 
kingdom  ever  after  sure.  They  will  meet  the  obligation. 

Let  the  opinion  that  possibly  a  mother's  temper,  spirit,  de- 
gree of  cultivation  of  mind  and  manner,  her  thoughts,  prayers, 
loves,  may  influence  her  child  give  way  to  the  conviction  that 
they  do  and  must  inevitably  shape  it  for  evil  or  for  good,  and 
we  have  given  woman  the  strongest  incentive  to  cultivate  in  her 
own  character  "  whatsoever  things  are  true  and  lovely  and  of 
good  report."  What  surer  death  to  envy,  vanity,  malice,  mean- 
ness, fretfulness,  and  all  the  horrible  brood  of  passions  that  nest 
out  of  sight  in  many  a  woman's  life  than  to  know  that  the  whole 
black-winged  flock  will  make  home  in  the  white  soul  of  her 
child? 

We  are' busy  in  these  days  with  our  provisions  that  the  next 
generation  of  mothers  shall  be  a  generation  that  has  a  college 
training,  a  man's  knowledge  of  books.  Only  those  of  us  who 
knew  what  it  was  to  knock,  and  then  to  plead,  and  then  to  batter 
at  the  brazen  doors  of  prejudice  that  shut  us  out  of  college, 
clamoring  for  our  right  to  the  knowledge  that  was  denied,  know 
how  rightly  to  estimate,  rightly  to  encourage,  rightly  to  rejoice 
that  our  coming  mothers  may  enter  freely  as  they  will. 

But  the  world's  childhood  should  not  wait  for  that  next 
generation  to  rear  its  children  by  the  help  of  its  better  knowl- 
edge of  books.  The  living  book  is  open  to  the  mother  to-day. 
The  child  is  here,  its  young  life  asking  for  bread  upon  which 
it  can  grow  bravely  up  to  the  full  stature  of  the  perfect  man. 
It  asks  for  fish  caught  in  our  widespread  nets  of  true  knowledge, 


18  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

for  fish  in  whose  mouths  shall  be  found  the  coin  which  they 
will  need  for  the  tax  which  life  makes  on  every  soul. 

How  much  of  the  hardness  of  heart,  think  you,  in  the  man- 
hood of  to-day,  how  much  of  the  slimy  sinuosity  of  our  political 
life,  how  much  of  the  wriggling  inconsistency  of  character  that 
marks  life  in  high  places,  how  much  of  the  hiss  and  sting  that 
awaits  the  highest  endeavor  and  the  noblest  aspirations  are  due 
to  the  fact  of  a  persistent  diet  of  serpents  and  of  stones? 

What,  then,  would  we  have?  First,  that  women,  mothers 
especially,  who  are  becoming  students  of  everything  else  under 
the  sun,  become  students  of  childhood  and  students  of  every  sys- 
tem, scheme,  plan,  and  practice  for  the  development  of  the  body, 
mind,  and  character  of  the  child;  not  that  the  students  of  to-day 
shall  make  good  mothers,  but  that  the  mothers  of  to-day  shall 
make  good  students.  It  is  the  one  thing  of  universal  interest 
to  the  present,  of  universal  importance  to  the  future  of  the  indi- 
vidual, of  the  nation,  that  the  women  of  to-day  accept,  as  their 
divine  responsibility,  the  childhood  of  to-day. 

I  am  not  unmindful  of  the  objections  that  arise  to  the  mind 
already  accustomed  to  the  idea  of  letting  their  own  grow  up 
and  out  and  away  into  a  life  the  mother  can  but  share  through 
her  affections  and  her  prayers. 

There  is  no  time,  we  say;  but  there  is  time  for  the  Shakes- 
peare and  Browning  clubs,  and  the  social  world  and  the  mission- 
ary society,  and  the  Daughters  of  the  Eevolution,  and  the  house- 
hold, and  the  father  of  the  children.  Yet  how  the  flavor  of  it 
all  turns  to  ashes  on  the  lips  when  the  boy — our  boy — belongs 
to  the  world  or  to  the  wine,  or  to  the  life  that  is  not  life  but 
death,  and  is  no  more  our  own!  In  the  bitterness  of  such  hours 
mothers  speak  the  truth,  if  the  anguish  is  not  so  deep  that  they 
can  not  speak  at  all:  "No  one  knew  him  as  I  knew  him.  He 
ought  to  have  had  this  influence  and  that  guidance  and  that 
help  along  the  way." 

And  that  utterance  is  the  very  truth  of  God  concerning  the 
motherhood  and  childhood  of  to-day.  Xo  one  knows  them  as 
we  know  them,  and  no  one  should  and  no  one  can;  and,  know- 
ing through  our  hearts  what  they  are  and  what  they  need,  it  is 
for  us  so  to  strengthen  the  life  of  knowledge  and  of  thought 


RESPONSE  TO  ADDRESS  OF  WELCOME.  19 

that  we  shall  walk  heside  them  all  the  way,  and  to  study  to 
strengthen  all  influences  that  may  avail  for  their  good,  that 
the  true  education  may  result  in  such  citizens  and  patriots,  such 
men  and  women  as  we  shall  be  proud  to  call  our  daughters  and 
our  sons. 

The  childhood  of  the  land  is  in  the  hands  of  the  mothers. 
The  father's  own  life  is  too  absorbing  to  allow  much  training 
in  principles  or  practice  during  the  formative  years.  Multitudes 
of  good  men  so  trust  the  good  women  who  are  their  wives  that 
they  leave  their  boys  almost  entirely  to  their  guidance  until 
they  are  young  men. 

Said  a  man  of  prominence:  "  My  wife  has  it  all  her  own  way 
with  our  boys.  She  can  shape  them  as  she  will.  If  they  come 
out  with  their  mother's  principles  and  their  father's  politics, 
they  will  be  all  right  for  this  world  and  the  next." 

And  yet  the  pitiful  fact  was  that  the  mother's  principles  and 
the  father's  politics  were  as  wide  apart  as  righteousness  and  sin; 
and  another  more  pitiful  fact  was  that  that  good  mother  could 
safely  be  trusted  by  her  husband  with  her  boys,  for  she  did  not 
know  there  was  this  difference,  and  she  never  would  find  it  out. 

Do  you  remember  the  following  lines  written  by  a  poet  to  a 
woman? 

The  bravest  battle  that  ever  was  fought, 

Shall  I  tell  you  where  and  when  1 
On  the  map  of  the  world  you  will  find  it  not — 

It  was  fought  by  the  mothers  of  men. 

Not  with  cannon  or  battle  shot, 

With  sword  or  mightier  pen ; 
Not  with  wonderful  word  or  thought 

From  the  lips  of  eloquent  men. 

But  deep  in  some  patient  woman's  heart, 

A  woman  who  could  not  yield, 
But  silently,  cheerfully  bore  her  part, 

Aye,  there  is  the  battlefield. 

No  marshaling  troop,  no  bivouac  song, 

No  banners  to  flaunt  and  wave, 
But,  oh,  their  battles,  they  last  so  long — 

From  the  cradle  e'en  to  the  grave. 


20  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

0  woman,  white  in  a  world  of  shame, 

With  splendid  and  silent  scorn, 
Go  back  to  God  as  white  as  you  came, 

The  noblest  warrior  born. 

No  one  of  us  questions  that  it  is  the  first  duty  of  every 
woman  soul — or,  I  should  say,  every  human  soul — to  "  go  back 
to  God  as  white  as  it  came." 

"  The  noblest  warrior  born."  Yes,  but  the  glory  of  her  war- 
fare is  neither  her  splendor  nor  her  scorn.  She  who  makes  that 
march  homeward,  even  with  feet  that  falter,  with  hands  out- 
stretched to  help  the  weaker,  and  even  the  defeated,  who  are 
often  the  majority  on  every  moral  battlefield,  with  the  gentle 
and  gracious  mien  that  bids  the  disheartened  struggler  to  come 
up  higher  with  touch  of  tenderness  and  word  of  pity  and  heart 
of  grace — she  is  the  warrior  who  should  wear  the  poet's  crown, 
for  she  not  only  goes  back  to  God  as  white  as  she  came,  but  she 
bears  in  her  arms  and  on  her  heart  the  little  ones  of  God,  and 
shrinks  from  neither  wound  nor  stain  so  that  these  whom  he 
has  given  her  may  be  presented  faultless  in  the  day  when  he 
makes  up  his  jewels.  Will  she  go  back  to  God  as  white  as  she 
came  while  the  little  children  plead?  Not  if  she  goes  alone. 

As  I  went  about  that  wonderful  White  City  during  the 
Columbian  Exposition,  and  saw  it  shining  at  night  with  the 
purple  and  rose  tint  and  gold,  I  said  softly  to  myself,  "  We 
women  have  it  in  our  power  to  make  a  white  city,  whose  founda- 
tions shall  be  laid,  deep  down  in  women's  and  children's  hearts, 
of  the  everlasting  principles  of  -truth  and  justice,  on  which  our 
next  four  centuries  of  prosperity  must  rest."  It  will  be  literally 
a  "  city  not  made  with  hands."  The  stones  of  its  buildings  will 
be  the  white  thoughts  of  white-hearted  women.  It  will  be  a 
city  that  shall  grow  sometimes  with  the  rose  tints  of  our  hope  for 
the  race,  with  the  golden  glow  of  our  purposes  for  good,  and 
may  be  by  and  by  with  the  purple  of  our  honest  pride  in  the 
good  that  we  have  wrought. 

The  material  for  such  a  city  has  long  been  lying  in  the  hearts 
and  brains  of  America's  women.  If  we  are  wise  enough  to 
choose  and  brave  enough  to  build,  and  true  enough  to  keep  our 
work  white  and  clean  from  all  touch  of  ignoble  things,  we  may 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  21 

have  by  and  by,  as  an  outgrowth  of  our  nation's  birthday  festi- 
val, a  "  city  that  hath  no  need  of  the  sun,"  a  structure  of  char- 
acter and  life  and  glorious  work,  of  which  that  White  City  was 
but  an  evanescent  prophecy  and  a  dream. 

Standing  on  the  threshold  of  this  new  movement,  remember- 
ing, as  we  all  ought  to  remember,  that  noble  lover  of  little  chil- 
dren who  gave  her  life  in  mistaken  martyrdom  of  motherhood, 
I  feel  the  solemnity  of  this  occasion,  and  as  if  we  had  been  called 
to  lay  here  and  now  the  corner  stone  of  our  White  City,  never 
for  one  moment  forgetting  that  we  work  not  single-handed,  for 
"  the  builder  and  maker  is  God." 


WEDNESDA  Y  AFTERNOON,  2:30  O'CLOCK. 

PEIMITIYE  MOTHERHOOD. 

BY  FRANK  HAMILTON  GUSHING, 
Of  the  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Washington,  D.  C. 

IT  is  not  strange  that  so  few  of  us  pause  to  consider,  even  in 
these  days  of  busy  and  searching  thought,  that  motherhood  was 
the  foundation  of  an  institution  in  the  primitive  world;  that 
this  institution  of  motherhood  was,  indeed,  the  first,  the  very 
oldest  institution,  that  ever  existed  among  communities  of  men. 
It  is  not  strange,  I  say,  for  since  the  long-forgotten  time  when 
the  institution  of  motherhood  was  the  acknowledged  basis  and 
center  of  every  organization  among  men,  since  the  days  when 
it  avowedly  involved  society  and  government  and  the  religion 
of  reproduction  and  earth  and  sun  and  ancestry,  all  of  the  more 
than  five  thousand  years  of  written  history  have  intervened; 
and  throughout  the  countless  pages  of  that  long-continued  his- 
tory, whence  our  conclusions  are  chiefly  drawn,  motherhood  has 

been  recorded  as  subordinate  to  fatherhood. 
3 


22  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

And  so  quite  naturally  it  has  happened  that  never  until 
to-day,  in  these  waning  years  of  the  nineteenth  century,  has  a 
Congress  of  Mothers,  a  National  Congress  for  the  reorganiza- 
tion, I  trust — albeit  along  quite  different  lines — of  motherhood 
as  a  recognized  institution  and  a  force  in  human  society,  been 
called  together. 

Great  is  your  honor,  then,  ye  founders  of  this  Congress,  and 
the  greater  do  I  esteem  the  honor  you  have  so  graciously  ac- 
corded me,  even  though  it  was  by  reason  of  the  primal  nature  of 
my  theme,  that  you  named  me  your  earliest  speaker. 

Probably  many  of  you  know  that  for  some  five  or  six  years 
I  lived  familiarly,  as  one  of  themselves,  among  a  primitive  peo- 
ple, the  Zuni  Pueblo  Indians  of  New  Mexico.  They  were  a 
people  who  had  reached,  and  still  almost  perfectly  exemplified 
in  their  modes  of  thought  and  daily  life,  the  last  or  highest 
stage  in  the  first  of  the  three  great  periods  of  human  develop- 
ment. These  periods  have  been  named  by  anthropologists,  first, 
that  of  savagery;  second,  that  of  barbarism;  and,  third,  that  of 
rational  civilization.  Perhaps  nothing  has  distinguished  them 
from  one  another  so  much  as  the  differing  states  of  society  or 
sociologic  organization  that  has  characterized  each.  The  first 
was  organized  on  the  basis  of  the  clan  as  a  unit,  and  of  mother 
right  as  the  governing  institution;  the  second  on  the  basis  of  the 
gens  as  a  unit,  and  of  father  right  as  the  governing  institution; 
the  third  on  the  basis  of  the  individual  as  a  unit  (standing  for 
the  family  as  we  understand  it,  in  place  of  the  consanguineal 
group  or  communal  family  of  families),  with  representation  based 
upon  territorial  rather  than  on  social  subdivision  of  the  nation, 
as  the  governing  institution.  But,  strikingly  enough,  in  this 
latest,  most  democratic  development,  as  among  ourselves,  even 
here  and  to-day,  the  unit  is  always  a  man,  and  in  this  fact  there 
lingers  still  a  survival  of  the  next  last  phase  of  development, 
as  well  as  in  our  legal  and  social  recognition,  to  some  extent,  of 
the  old  father  right  of  the  barbaric  or  patriarchal  phase. 

Beyond  illustrating,  by  reference  to  known  peoples,  precisely 
what  is  meant  by  savagery  and  barbarism,  as  designating  the 
first  two  stages  of  cultural  and  social  progress,  I  will  not  pause 
to  consider  their  many  other  characteristics.  The  condition  of 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  23 

savagery  so  called  was  represented  perfectly  and  almost  from 
beginning  to  end,  by  the  multitude  of  diverse  Indian  tribes  that 
dwelt  within  our  ample  borders  previously  to  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, previously,  that  is,  to  the  discovery  of  the  New  World  by 
Columbus.  The  world  they  lived  in  was  only  in  a  sense  the 
newer;  it  was  the  older  world  in  its  human  aspect  at  least,  for 
the  ancestry  of  these  Indian  peoples  had  been  so  late  to  come, 
or  else  had  been  for  ages  so  cut  off  from  the  rest  of  mankind, 
that  they  lingered  on  in  their  pristine  state  and  fashion,  and 
still,  therefore,  represented  well-nigh  the  infancy — at  any  rate, 
the  adolescence — of  our  race.  Highest  among  them,  and  there- 
fore almost  barbaric  in  their  progress  toward  ultimate  civiliza- 
tion, as  occupying  the  uppermost  status  of  savagery,  stood,  as  I 
have  said  before,  the  Zuni  Indians,  even  as  lately  as  when  I  be- 
came a  member  of  their  tribe,  in  1879. 

Next  above  them  stood  the  Aztecs  of  Mexico,  the  Mayas  of 
Central  America,  for  they,  in  a  general  way,  corresponded  to 
the  oldest  Egyptian  tribes,  to  the  predecessors  of  the  Baby- 
lonians, as  shown  by  recent  excavations  made  by  the  Archaeo- 
logical Department  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  or  (to 
make  my  meaning  clearer)  to  the  progenitors  of  the  peoples  of 
biblical  times. 

As  the  Zuni,  comparatively  speaking,  stood  one  degree  below 
these  barbaric  Old-World  peoples,  so  the  Greeks  of  Homer's 
heroic  time  stood  one  degree  above  them  in  the  upward  march 
toward  the  true  civilization  that  the  Greeks  of  later  centuries, 
with  their  written  language  and  schools  of  philosophy,  contin- 
ued even  unto  the  beginning  of  its  modern  development  through 
Latin  law  and  learning. 

Thus,  the  Zuni  Indians  take  their  place  in  the  scale  of  human 
evolution  just  at  the  close  of  the  childhood  of  the  race,  and 
hence  may  be  reckoned,  chronologically,  as  living  still  the  man- 
ner of  life  that  generally  prevailed  between  six  and  seven  thou^ 
sand  years  ago.  I  have  taken  pains  to  show  quite  precisely  where 
they  belong,  because  in  so  many  respects  they  represent  that 
period  of  the  world's  history,  elsewhere  past,  in  which  mother 
right  universally  obtained — the  period  of  the  truly  primitive 
world  in  every  land. 


24  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Men  have  erred  grievously  in  styling  such  primitive  peoples 
"  savages ";  for  in  continuing  to  call  them  savages  we  have 
naturally  come  to  consider  them  so,  and  to  regard  them  as  savage 
by  very  nature — as  ferocious,  innately  depraved.  Far  other- 
wise were  they.  You  will  understand  this  better  if  I  say  of 
them  that  they  were  simply  grown-up  children;  if  I  say  again 
that  they  belonged  not  merely  to  the  beginning,  but  literally  to 
the  childhood  of  our  race.  True,  it  has  been  said  that  children 
themselves  are  only  savages;  but  how  many  of  you  would  sanc- 
tion this  saying  save  in  my  acceptation  of  its  meaning?  Who, 
at  any  rafe,  would  say  of  our  little  girls  that  they  are  savages? 
Yet,  believe  me,  these  loving  little  creatures  of  to-day  are,  in 
their  dispositions  and  their  modes  of  mind,  the  truest  representa- 
tives on  earth  of  what  our  gentle  mothers  used  to  be  in  the 
morning  of  man's  creation,  and  very  like  them  are  the  little 
Zuni  mothers  that  I  knew  so  well,  and  of  whom  I  will  tell  you, 
,anon,  more  particularly. 

When  the  first  white  men  came  to  our  shores  they  found 
'that  the  native  tribes  generally,  even  those  less  advanced  than 
•  are  the  Zunis,  were  nevertheless  like  them — gentle,  not  ceaselessly 
-at  war,  -as  we  have  supposed  them  to  have  been,  but  kind  to 
one  another,  and  in  the  beginning,  at  least,  kind  even  to  these 
strangers  who  came  but  fo  despoil  them.  And  especially,  as  the 
pages  of  -all  the  old  chroniclers  tell  us  again  and  again,  were 
the  men  of  these  tribes  gentle  and  kind  to  the  women.  This 
was  so  "because  these  people  were  at  that  time  all  living  under 
the  'tenderest,  and  yet  in  some  respects  the  strongest  rule,  that 
•ever  governed  communities  of  men — the  mother  rule. 

Among  tribes  that  are  better  known  to  us  than  are  the 
Zunis  all  this  has  been  changed  by  the  long  and  bitter  struggle 
with  our  race  that  they  have  been  forced  to  undergo — a  struggle 
which  until  recently  the  Zunis  were  spared,  living  apart,  as  they 
were,  in  their  distant  and  forbidding  desert  home.  And  so  I  take 
them  to  be  typical  to-day,  and  perhaps  the  last  representatives 
we  now  have,  of  the  primitive  order  of  humanity  as  it  quite  gen- 
erally existed  here  in  America  before  the  period  of  discovery 
and  colonization. 

In  that  old  order  of  things,  mother  right,  or  the  institution 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  25 

of  motherhood,  both  led  to  and  was  founded  upon  the  recog- 
nition of  woman,  of  the  mother,  as  first,  not  second,  in  the  social 
organization.  She  was,  quite  otherwise  than  we  have  been 
taught  to  suppose,  the  center  and  head  of  the  family,  since  in 
her  was  vested  the  clan;  from  her  the  clan  or  family  name 
descended,  and  therewith  inheritances  of  every  kind,  for  to  her 
belonged  alike  the  home  and  its  contents,  to  her  and  to  her  sis- 
ters belonged  the  lands  of  the  tribe.  From  them  visibly  sprang 
the  men  of  the  tribe,  as  from  the  Earth  Mother  sprang  the  sus- 
tenance of  men  and. all  creatures;  and  so,  as  a  right,  and  not  by 
compulsion,  they  tilled  or  directed  the  tillage  of  the  soil,  and 
the  products  thereof  were  possessed  solely  by  them.  Therefore  a 
woman  did  not  go  to  her  husband's  lodge  or  household  when 
she  chose  or  accepted  him  as  a  suitor  in  marriage,  but  he  came 
to  her  home  and  remained  there  only  by  her  consent  and  at  her 
will.  His  children  were  first  her  children,  and  less  his  own  than 
were  the  children  of  his  blood  sisters,  his  nephews  and  nieces; 
for,  as  I  have  before  suggested,  the  children  always  belonged  to 
the  clan  institution  of  their  mothers,  and  as  marriage  within  the 
clan  was  prohibited,  their  fathers  had  no  right  therein  save  by 
marital  alliance  and  sufferance,  and  necessarily  belonged,  there- 
fore, to  the  clan  institutions  of  their  own  mothers  and  sisters,  in 
turn. 

All  this  may  seem  strange,  so  differently  have  we  been  in- 
formed— at  least  popularly — as  to  the  constitution  of  Indian 
society,  and  especially  as  to  the  relations  that  the  men  of  Indian 
tribes  held  toward  their  women,  or  "  squaws "  so  called;  yet 
more  surprising  still  is  the  fact  that  in  such  a  primitive  state  of 
society  as  I  am  describing  monogamy,  not  polygamy,  was  the 
rule.  During  the  childhood  age  of  our  race  marriage  was  not 
promiscuous,  as  we  have  been  told  by  so  many  students.  It  was 
generally,  in  a  more  strict  sense  than  even  in  our  highest  state 
to-day,  monogamous.  And  this  was  due  to  the  universal  preva- 
lence of  the  institution  of  mother  right  in  earliest  times,  for 
this  institution  grew  naturally  out  of  the  visible  relation  of  the 
mother  to  her  child,  as  being  its  creator  and  sustainer  in  one, 
and  whose  right  of  possession  was  therefore  never  questioned, 
and  whose  right  of  choice,  as  keeper  of  her  kind  and  clan,  was 


26         NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

recognized  as  supreme.  I  have  said  that  in  pre-Columbian  times 
the  Indians  of  our  particular  land  still  exemplified  this  primitive 
and  natural  state  of  human  society,  notwithstanding  all  we  have 
been  taught  to  the  contrary  regarding  the  Indians  of  more  recent 
times.  It  must  be  remembered  that  when  the  white  man  first 
began  to  traffic  with  these  Indians  for  their  lands  and  other  pos- 
sessions, which  belonged,  it  must  also  be  remembered,  to  the 
women  of  the  tribes,  the  first  blow  to  their  primitive  or  matri- 
archal constitution  of  society  was  struck;  because  naturally,  if 
only  from  habit,  these  men  of  our  race  dealt  by  preference  with 
the  men  of  this  other  race.  To  the  men  they  gave  their  objects 
of  metal,  their  guns  and  other  weapons,  and,  worse  than  all, 
their  domesticated  animals,  especially  the  horse.  These  things 
were  useful  in  the  chase,  and  the  women  did  not  want  them. 
But  then  it  was  that  for  the  first  time  in  the  long  course  of  their 
history,  these  Indian  men  became  possessed  in  their  own  right, 
of  property  apart  from  that  of  their  wives  and  sisters,  and  became 
possessed  as  well  of  the  means  of  effectually,  though  unequally, 
contending  with  one  another,  tribe  with  tribe,  over  these  new 
possessions.  With  the  acquisition  of  such  right  to  property, 
especially  in  animals  that  served,  came  greed  of  possession,  the 
tendency  to  make  conquest  alike  of  the  lives  and  the  possessions, 
and,  finally,  of  even  the  wives  and  sisters  of  weaker  or  of  sub- 
jugated tribes;  and  thus  it  was  that  here  in  America  the  position 
of  woman  was  first  degraded,  and  that  polygamy,  wife  purchase, 
and  woman  slavery  were  ushered  in  tragically  and  suddenly,  so 
much  so  as  to  destroy  the  best  that  was  in  clan  or  mother  rule, 
and  substitute  only  the  worst  that  in  the  Old  World  ages  before 
had  been  naturally  and  more  slowly  developed  in  father  rule,  by 
the  transition  from  one  kind  of  property  right  to  another  kind, 
wrought  by  the  domestication  of  animals  and  the  consequent 
adoption  of  the  pastoral  and  nomadic  mode  of  living  that  broke 
up  clan  existence. 

It  is,  then,  with  the  Indian  who  is  the  descendant  of  such 
a  changed  ancestry  that  we  are  most  familiar;  and  so  I  have 
claimed  that  the  Zuni,  having  been  so  far  away,  so  isolated  in  his 
arid  environment,  has  remained  relatively  unchanged,  abides 
still  under  the  benign  and  protective  but  forceful  rule  of  mother 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  27 

right,  and  is  even  now  typical  of  what  his  race  more  generally 
was  in  early  times. 

In  strict  accord  with  the  system  of  organization  and  faith 
in  motherhood  to  which  the  Zunis  still  cling,  is  their  helief  in 
the  origin  of  things  and  of  this  system.  They  say:  "  The  first  of 
all  beings  was  the  '  Brooding  Mother  Darkness  of  Space,'  whence 
came  the  First  Father  of  all  in  the  '  Light  of  the  Dawn.'  For  in 
darkness  the  seeds  of  all  things  are  conceived,  and  out  of  dark- 
ness comes  every  morning  the  light,  and  in  it  all  things  appear 
as  new.  The  Son  of  Darkness  and  Dawn,  the  Sun  Father  him- 
self, and  the  Daughter  of  Darkness  and  the  White  Mists  of 
Dawn,  the  Ocean  herself,  then  appeared,  as  in  the  white  mists 
of  breaths  that  follow  darkness  each  morning,  even  unto  this 
day,  appear  the  sun  and  the  abundant  drops  of  dew.  Daughter 
of  the  Sun  and  the  Ocean  in  turn  was  our  Mother,  the  Earth, 
and  the  children  of  her  and  of  the  Sky  Father  were  the  mothers 
of  all  men  and  all  creatures  here  below,  born  from  her  fourfold 
wombs  or  cavern  depths."  Believing  so,  these  people  hold  that 
women,  not  men,  are  the  inheritors  of  earth,  since  they  were 
and  are  still,  her  first  children,  and  on  this  poetic  belief  is  based 
their  matriarchal  or  clan  and  totem  system  of  society  and  gov- 
ernment and  their  rules  of  mother  right  and  inheritance. 

Said  the  old  Zuni  priests  and  chiefs  to  me  one  night  when 
gathered  in  council  to  request  that  new  teachers  be  sent:  "  Send 
women  this  time,  for  ye  men  of  the  Me-li-ka-na-kwe  would  pos- 
sess yourselves  of  the  grandmother  of  all  men,  the  mother  of 
our  mothers,  the  Earth  Mother  herself;  yea,  and  would  drive 
away  even  her  daughters,  her  heiresses,  from  their  inheritance, 
which,  even  as  milk  to  their  babes,  gladly  do  they  share  with 
us  men  in  all  we  need.  Send,  therefore,  women,  to  whom  we 
will  be  brothers  and  sons,  nor  will  they  seek  to  rob  our  mothers 
and  sisters  and  wives  of  their  inheritance." 

It  is  no  wonder  that  with  a  people  believing  thus  the  very 
name  of  woman  is  0-Tcya,  meaning  "  creator  (or  Maker)  of 
being."  No  wonder  they  hold  that  the  highest  personages  of  their 
nation  or  tribe  is  the  Tdw-a-Shi'-wan  0-Kya,  Priestess  of 
Corn  and  the  Seed.  No  wonder  that  with  their  women  them- 
selves the  thought  of  maternity,  and  of  the  mother  right  it  in- 


28  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

sures,  is  the  one  central  thought  throughout  all  their  lives,  in 
everything  they  do  and  in  everything  they  teach  their  little 
girls  to  do.  Beautiful  beyond  any  ideas  of  the  kind  I  have 
ever  learned  of  are  the  thoughts  that  the  Zuni  women  have  of 
this  great  mission  of  theirs,  the  mission  of  maternity,  and  of  the 
commanding  privileges  that  are  accorded  to  them  therein.  They 
verily  believe  that  not  only  are  they  the  first  descendants  of 
the  Earth  Mother  herself,  and  first,  therefore,  in  the  rights  of 
her  possessions,  but  also  that  they,  like  her,  are  the  virtual  cre- 
ators of  being,  and  that  never  until  they  be  old  may  they  forget 
for  a  moment  the  responsibility  of  this,  for  around  these  funda- 
mental beliefs  cluster  many  singular  notions  in  regard  to  their 
powers. 

I  well  remember  that  when  I  had  been  some  time  living 
among  the  Zunis  I  happened  to  send  away  for  as  beautiful  a  pic- 
ture in  colors,  of  an  American  woman,  as  I  could  get.  I  wished 
to  have  it  as  an  illustration  of  my  talks  about  my  own  people,  for 
the  Zunis  had  very  rarely  seen  any  women  of  my  nation,  more 
rarely  still  the  beautiful  and  refined  among  them.  After  the 
picture — one  of  Mary  Anderson — came,  I  framed  it  and  placed  it 
on  the  end  wall  of  the  council  chamber,  which  was  next  to  my 
own  little  room,  and  left  it  hanging  there.  One  morning,  a  few 
days  after,  some  of  the  women,  the  little  mothers  of  the  tribe 
(for  all  of  them  could  easily  have  walked  under  my  arm),  came 
quietly  into  my  room.  They  greeted  me,  bowed,  and  sat  down, 
patiently  waiting,  as  was  customary,  until  I  asked  them  what 
they  would  have.  They  then  said: 

"  Younger  brother,  we  are  told  that  you  have  a  picture,  a 
glowing  shadow,  of  an  extremely  fair  and  beautiful  face,  in  this 
house,  and  we  would  sit  before  it  for  a  little  while  each  day,  if 
so  be  you  will  that  we  may." 

I  did  not  know  why  they  asked  this  privilege,  but,  of  course/ 
I  granted  their  wish.  Day  after  day  these  little  women  would 
come  and  sit  on  the  floor  in  front  of  this  picture,  their  eyes  fixed 
eagerly  upon  it,  their  hands  crossed  over  their  bosoms.  They 
would  occasionally  unclasp  their  hands,  reach  them  up  toward 
the  picture  with  a  sweeping  motion,  and,  breathing  from  them, 
would  pass  them  down  over  their  persons,  then  fold  them  again. 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  29 

Almost  every  day  as  they  went  away  in  the  same  quiet  fashion 
in  which  they  had  come  they  would  say  to  me:  "  Thanks,  little 
brother,  for  the  privilege  thou  hast  given.  If  so  be,  lo!  our 
children  will  be  fair  and  beautiful  even  as  the  face  we  have  gazed 
upon  and  carry  away  in  our  hearts  is  fair."  I  afterward  learned 
that  the  reason  why  they  came  to  this  little  shrine,  as  they  had 
constituted  it,  was  because  they  believed  that  whatsoever  is  most 
impressed  upon  the  mind  of  the  mother,  whatsoever  she  most 
dreams  of,  or  thinks  of  and  sees  in  her  thoughts,  that  will  her 
children  resemble. 

So  profoundly  do  these  people  believe  in  this  idea,  indeed, 
that  it  not  only  influences  the  behavior  of  their  women  in 
mature  life,  or  when  they  expect  to  become  mothers,  but  even 
during  girlhood.  For  they  suppose  that  the  very  thought  of 
things  seen  or  felt  so  as  to  dwell  constantly  in  the  minds  of 
maidens  themselves,  will  in  after  life,  when  they  become  moth- 
ers, shape  and  disclose  themselves  in  their  offspring.  Accord- 
ing to  such  beliefs,  rather  than  from  considerations  such  as  we 
would  naturally  attribute  or  enjoin,  the  maidens  of  these  people, 
though  more  knowing  than  are  our  own,  are  retiring  and  cir- 
cumspect. And  their  elders  are  watchful  not  only  that  they 
shall  form  no  actual  alliances  that  are  opposed  to  the  restrictions 
of  the  clans  they  represent,  but  that  they  shall  be  guarded  lest 
even  they  form  attachments  which,  by  dwelling  too  much  upon 
their  minds,  shall  influence  them  in  ways  such  as  I  have  re- 
ferred to.  If,  for  instance,  the  personal  presence  of  a  stranger 
or  some  youth,  with  whom  union  in  marriage  is  supposed  to  be 
for  one  reason  or  another  impossible  or  objectionable,  chances 
to  impress  some  susceptible  one  of  these  little  maidens,  and  if 
perchance  also  she  smiles  upon  him  in  such  wise  that  he  too 
is  impressed,  and  especially  if  his  heart  be  quickened  and  his 
love,  no  less  than  her  own,  be  thereby  aroused,  then,  when  this 
is  discovered,  when  it  is  seen  that  it  dwells  in  the  thoughts  of 
the  maid  and  influences  the  mind  of  the  youth,  the  most  elab- 
orate of  ceremonials  must  be  observed  to  overcome  the  pre- 
formative  and  subtly  potential  influence  of  their  feelings  for 
one  another.  The  maid — for  maids  make  the  first  sign  in  Zufii- 
land,  since  theirs  shall  be  the  household — is  the  more  greatly  at 


30  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

fault,  and  must  therefore  prepare  of  the  choicest  seed-grains  a 
perfect  basket  tray  of  meal,  and,  with  a  bundle  of  fuel  for  its 
cooking,  must  make  present  thereof  to  the  youth  or  to  his  fam- 
ily, for  lo!  the  life  that  might  have  been  conceived  from  him 
is  thereby  given  back  in  the  seed  substance  of  life  itself;  and 
he  in  turn  must  give,  in  semblance  at  least,  the  bridal  gifts  of 
raiment  and  other  things  that  else  he  had  provided  for  her  and 
for  their  unrealized  children;  so  deep  seated,  so  fundamental, 
and  so  influential  on  life  are  thoughts  of  these  matriarchal 
people  regarding  woman  and  woman's  motherhood! 

For  reasons  kindred  to  this,  when  a  woman  in  Zuni-land  ex- 
pects to  become  a  mother,  she  is  guarded  from  contact  with 
the  breath  of  strangers  who  may  have  done  violent  deeds,  and 
from  seeing  the  more  horrible  of  the  masked  figures  of  the 
demons  of  creation  and  war  that  perform  in  the  sacred  dance 
dramas  of  her  people;  from  sight  of  hamstrung  deer  or  slaugh- 
tered animals  when  brought  in;  from  reptile  creatures,  or  from 
passing  over  giddily  flowing  waters,  in  order  that  her  offspring 
be  not  timid  or  violent;  be  not  frightful  of  visage;  go  not 
maimed;  turn  not  giddy  or  unsteady  of  thought. 

For  reasons  like  these,  too,  when  a  Zuni  woman  is  about  to 
give  birth  she  is,  if  possible,  retired  into  a  room  of  "  sacred 
inclosure."  The  entrance  and  windows  of  this  room  are  care- 
fully screened  with  blankets,  and  over  or  on  the  entrance  way, 
whether  door  or  sky  hole,  a  plume  of  warning,  or  taboo,  is 
attached,  so  that  none  but  the  appointed  may  enter.  Here  the 
child  must  remain  until  the  morning  of  the  tenth  day  after  its 
birth.  For  as  yet  it  is  not  born  into  the  world  of  men.  Nine 
days,  representing  the  months  of  its  gestation,  are  required  for 
its  formation  and  "  hardening,"  as  a  human  being,  against  all 
malign  influences.  For  it  is  supposed  by  them  that  during  the 
period  of  this  formation,  the  child  is,  as  were  all  the  beings 
of  creation  when  the  world  was  new,  Icydi-u-na — unripe  and 
susceptible,  impressionable,  even  as  are  the  grains  of  growing 
corn  when  in  milk,  which,  if  a  stalk  or  their  husks  or  threads 
of  silk  be  too  tightly  drawn  over  them,  lo!  the  impress  thereof 
remains,  even  when  they  be  hardened  and  grown  old.  And 
so  they  believe  that  if  any  one  who  has  committed  deeds  of  vio- 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  31 

lence,  even  in  defense  of  his  people  (like  a  warrior  of  the  tribe), 
comes  too  near  this  new-born  presence,  the  bane  of  violent  deeds 
will  enter  into  its  being  in  the  shape  of  evil  tendencies  or  pre- 
disposition to  disease  or  other  ill.  Therefore  not  only  must 
strangers,  but  friends  and  relatives  alike,  even  the  father  of  the 
child  himself,  remain  aloof.  Only  some  grave  old  priest  or  medi- 
cine man,  whose  life  has  been  spent  in  meditation  and  prayer- 
ful penances,  and  who  is  supposed  never  to  have  "  allowed  his 
heart  to  beat  quickly  in  anger  or  passion/'  who  belongs  to  the 
clan  of  the  mother  or  father,  and  is  for  the  time  being  called 
"  Grandmother  ";  and  some  old  woman  of  experience,  also  of  one 
or  the  other  of  these  clans,  and  sometimes  a  clan  brother  or 
clan  sister,  whose  breath  of  help  or  blessing  is  desired,  may,  as 
a  rule,  enter  and  minister  to  the  mother.  When  the  little  child 
is  born,  the  mother  of  its  mother,  or  some  one  representing 
her,  takes  it.  She  carefully  puts  away  the  cord  that  bound  it 
to  its  mother,  to  be  sacrificed,  that  it  may  ever  after  be  the 
shrine  of  attachment  to  the  Earth  Mother.  Then  she  lays  the 
infant  on  a  mound  of  warm  sand.  This  miniature  mountain  of 
sand  represents  the  Earth  Mother,  from  whom  the  parents  of 
men  and  all  beings  came  in  the  days  of  creation,  and  whence 
all  men  must  even  now  ceremonially  come,  in  remembrance  of 
that  time,  even  as  do  creatures  and  seeds  from  burrows  and  soil 
of  the  earth.  Then  an  ear  of  corn,  full  and  perfect — red  for  a 
girl,  white  for  a  boy — is  placed  by  the  left  side  or  heart  of  the 
child,  that  it  may  be  nourished  with  the  perfect  life  of  man  that 
was  born  of  the  virgins  of  corn  when  all  was  new.  Soon  a  grand- 
mother of  the  father's  clan,  being  duly  summoned,  enters,  bring- 
ing a  little  mantle  or  blanket;  for  she  comes  to  represent  the 
father  and  his  clan,  and  because  the  father  is  supposed  to  be 
the  provider  of  clothing  for  the  mother  and  for  her  children,  so 
one  of  the  father's  mothers  or  sisters  must  therefore  provide  this, 
the  first  clothing  for  the  little  one. 

I  will  not  enter  into  details  regarding  the  ceremonials  that 
attend  all  the  following  days  of  seclusion.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  day  it  is  supposed  that  the  child  changes  its  skin,  which 
previously  was  like  that  of  the  ancestors  of  man — like  that  of 
reptiles  or  serpents — because  in  the  time  of  creation  men  lived, 


32  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

as  these  creatures  now  live,  within  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  and 
were  protected  by  such  skins  as  theirs;  and  when  they  came 
forth  from  the  Mother  Earth  into  the  heat  and  dryness  of  the 
sun  they  shed  this  skin,  even  as  crawling  reptiles  and  serpents 
now  shed  theirs  in  warm  springtime  or  dry  summer.  So  on 
this  fourth  morning  of  its  life,  which  is  supposed  to  correspond 
to  that  time,  it  is  considered  necessary  to  bathe  the  baby  in  suds 
of  yucca  root,  in  order  that  its  new  skin  be  perfected;  and  also 
to  paint  it  with  ashes  and  a  white  pigment  made  from  kaolin 
and  sacred  corn  powder,  in  order  that  unseemly  growths  of  hair 
may  be  prevented.  But,  to  be  brief,  on  the  early  morning  of 
the  tenth  day  the  mother  of  the  father  may  again  come  into 
the  room.  The  blankets  may  now  be  lifted,  the  light  of  dawn 
let  in.  For  now  she  takes  once  more  the  little  one  and  wraps  it 
in  the  mantle  she  gave,  and  with  the  joyous  father,  who  first 
sees  his  child  this  day,  goes  forth  followed  by  the  mother,  from 
the  room  and  from  the  house,  into  the  light  of  the  rising  sun, 
and  holds  the  child  up  that  it  may  be  introduced  to  the  rising 
Father  of  all  mankind  in  the  morning  of  its  new  life,  when  he, 
like  the  little  one  coming  newly  from  its  mother,  is  himself, 
though  so  ancient,  coming  from  the  Ocean  and  Earth  Mother, 
new-born  for  another  day.  It  is  only  then  that  the  child  is  sup- 
posed to  be  really  born  into  the  "world  of  daylight/'  as  these 
people  poetically  call  our  mortal  life. 

It  is  now  taken  back,  not  into  the  room  of  seclusion,  but 
into  one  of  the  living  rooms  of  the  house,  and  there,  with  elab- 
orate ceremonials,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  assembled  repre- 
sentatives of  the  clans  of  both  mother  and  father,  its  little  ears 
are  pierced,  and  the  blood  dripping  from  them  is  mingled  with 
pure  or  virgin  water  taken  from  flowing  springs  at  night  time — 
ere  the  sun  has  kissed  them  with  warmth — and  this,  dipped  up 
in  an  ancient  seashell,  is  handed  about,  that  it  may  be  partaken 
of  by  representatives  of  the  gathered  clans  and  that  they  may 
so  be  actually  and  visibly  united  in  blood  relationship  to  this 
new-born  child.  Only  now  is  the  child  supposed  to  be  initiated 
into  the  tribe  of  its  father,  and  clan  of  the  mother  from  whom 
it  received  its  life,  its  flesh  and  blood,  and  from  whom,  therefore, 
it  must  receive  its  inheritance  and  take  its  name.  And  this,  its 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  33 

first  name,  is  therefore  sacred,  not  a  name  of  use,  but  a  name 
symbolic  of  some  part,  some  function,  or  some  characteristic  of 
the  totem  animal,  or  plant,  or  household  god  of  the  family  of 
its  mother. 

The  days  of  natal  seclusion  being  over,  and  the  life  of  day- 
light begun,  a  cradle  board  or  framework  of  basketry  is  pre- 
pared for  the  little  one.  It  is  flat,  straight,  rounded  at  the  ends, 
a  little  broader  above  than  below,  and  furnished  with  hoops  or 
bows  at  the  head,  which  can  be  raised  like  those  of  a  carriage 
top,  to  support  a  cloth  or  other  covering,  as  a  canopy  to  screen 
the  light  or  keep  flies  away  from  its  occupant  when  sleeping. 
Upon  this  flat  cradle  frame  or  board  shredded  cedar  bark  and 
folded  cloths,  or  a  thin,  rather  hard  little  deer-hair  mattress  is 
laid,  while  a  tiny,  equally  flat  pillow,  usually  also  of  deer  hair 
or  soft  bark,  is  put  at  the  head.  Before  being  placed  on  the 
board  the  baby  is  clouted  with  cedar  bark  or  soft  rags,  and  is 
then  swaddled  or  rolled  in  soft  cotton  cloth  wide  enough  to 
cover  it  from  neck  to  feet,  and  neatly  bandaged  like  a  thinly 
wrapped  little  mummy,  and  then  laid  upon  the  cradle  board  and 
as  neatly  lashed  thereto  by  bands  that  are  passed  through  loops 
at  the  sides  and  regularly  crossed  like  laces.  Thus  the  child 
can  neither  turn  nor  move,  save  to  wiggle  its  little  feet  and  hands. 
Here  it  must  remain  whether  it  cry  or  no,  tenderly  soothed,  it 
is  true,  nursed,  dandled,  and  tossed  up  and  down — a  whole  house- 
hold regulated  on  tiptoe,  so  to  say,  around  its  little  life — but 
still  never  removed,  save  at  stated  times  to  be  bathed  in  yucca 
suds,  allowed  to  roll  and  kick  about  for  a  little,  very  little,  while, 
then  painted  with  the  pigment  of  perfection,  and  strapped  into 
its  straight-laced  bed  again.  If  the  baby  be  a  boy,  a  flint  knife 
or  arrow  point,  or  some  other  amulet,  is  tied  to  the  hoop  over 
his  head,  that  he  may  fare  well  in  the  hunt  and  in  war  by  and 
by,  and  that  evil  may  be  cut  off  from  his  "  trail  of  life  ";  but  if  a 
girl,  a  little  bit  of  green  stone,  the  symbol  of  fertility  and  growth, 
or  a  T-shaped  figure  is  attached,  that  she  may  live  to  be  the 
mother  of  many  children. 

Undoubtedly  the  use  of  the  cradle  board  or  baby  frame  sur- 
vives with  these  Zunis  from  the  time  when  they  led  a  more  or 
less  wandering  life,  like  that  led  by  Indian  tribes  with  whom 


34  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

we  are  more  familiar;  and  in  such  a  state  of  life,  of  course,  it 
was  to  the  last  degree  a  suitable  contrivance,  for  by  means  of 
the  burden  band  fastened  at  either  side  of  its  upper  part,  it 
could  be  strapped  to  the  forehead  or  the  back  and  borne  about 
without  inconvenience,  or  it  could  be  set  up  with  the  child  still 
in  it  against  a  convenient  tree  or  log,  or  laid  in  the  shade  of 
some  bush,  its  little  inmate  saved  from  straying  away  or  from 
other  harm.  But  for  ages  the  Zunis  have  led  a  life  as  settled 
almost  as  our  own;  their  little  mothers,  therefore,  never  have 
need  to  carry  their  children  far  away  from  home,  and  yet  the 
traditional  cradle  board  remains  in  honored  use  among  them. 
They  themselves  assign  a  very  quaint,  but  definite  reason  for 
this.  From  the  first  time  when  the  infant  ia  placed  upon  it 
until  it  can  creep  and  walk  about  and  is  permitted  to  leave  it 
finally  it  is,  as  I  have  suggested  above,  kept  rigorously  fastened 
to  it  for  stated  lengths  of  time  each  day,  no  matter  how  much 
it  may  rebel  or  cry.  This,  so  they  say,  is  done  in  order  that  it 
may  learn  to  lie  straight,  yea,  and  to  walk  straight  in  the  path- 
way of  life,  in  order  that  it  may  learn  the  hardest  lesson  any 
one  has  ever  to  learn  in  this  life — namely,  that  it  can  not  have 
its  own  way,  can  not  have  the  things  that  it  would  in  this  world, 
at  least  as  it  would  have  them,  but  must  e'en  be  content  to  take 
them  as  they  come  or  are  vouchsafed.  And  it  is  thus,  through  the 
very  first  lessons  given  to  children  among  the  Zunis,  that  they 
begin  to  acquire  that  wonderful  power  which  in  the  Indian  has 
so  often  excited  our  remark — the  power  of  absolute  self-control, 
of  that  kind  of  impassivity,  even  under  the  most  difficult  and 
trying,  and  perhaps  painful  of  circumstances,  which  the  Indian 
idealizes  as  the  embodiment  of  perfect  behavior,  since  it  is  the 
sort  of  behavior  that  he  witnesses  in  the  animal — the  eagle,  the 
panther,  or  other  silent  creature — whose  name  he  bears  as  the 
totem  of  his  clan.  It  is  the  kind  of  calm  that  he  believes  the 
gods  of  his  clan,  the  gods  of  his  household  maintain,  in  both  evil 
times  and  good,  and  he  would  fain  emulate  them  reverently  and 
strenuously,  having  gained,  as  we  never  do,  the  power  of  so 
doing,  thus. in  his  earliest  infancy. 

I  most  vividly  recall  that,  when  I  first  became  a  member  of 
the  tribe  of  Zuni,  and  it  was  decided,  after  months,  that  I  should 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  35 

be  initiated  into  one  of  the  clans,  they  took  me  into  a  room 
apart  precisely  as  they  would  have  taken  one  of  their  own  little 
babies.  They  pretended,  at  least,  to  shut  me  up  for  ten  days, 
and  fed  me  on  a  particular  kind  of  seed  food,  and  on  that  only. 
Then,  at  the  end  of  the  make-believe  period  of  nativity,  they 
called  me  forth,  and  although  the  ceremonial  was  here  inter- 
rupted through  my  own  folly  and  ignorance,  yet  ultimately 
my  would-be  father  succeeded  in  inducing  me  to  allow  him  to 
pierce  my  ears.  Then  it  was  that  the  ceremonial  was  resumed 
by  the  kinsfolk  of  his  clan  and  of  the  clan  that  thereby  became 
mine,  and  it  was  carried  through  as  fully  and  almost  as  perfectly 
as  if  I  had  been  born  there  but  ten  days  previously,  as  though 
I  had  just  been  taken  forth  on  the  tenth  morning  to  greet  the 
sun  and  meet  the  people  of  my  clan.  They  pierced  my  ears 
and  mingled  my  blood  with  spring  water,  drank  of  it,  and 
greeted  me  by  a  new  name,  that  I  ever  after  bore — the  name  of 
Te-na-tsa-li,  the  "  God  and  Flower  of  all  Seasons."  Then  they 
sprinkled  the  remainder  of  the  water  abroad  upon  the  soil  of 
Zufii,  that  of  my  being  it  might  partake  and  wherefore  return 
unto  me  life.  But  they  said: 

"Lo!  little  child,  alas!  We  can  not  put  you  on  the  cradle 
board  because  you  are  too  long  and  big,  and,  oh,  what  a  pity 
that  your  American  mother  brought  you  up  on  a  soft  bag  of 
feathers!  Never  can  your  meat  be  hard,  never  can  your  sinews 
be  stayed  with  patience,  nay,  and  never,  never,  will  you  grow 
old  in  age  and  have  dignity  until  old  age  itself  compels  you  so 
to  do."  Then  I  recognized  what  they  had  meant  when  for  a 
long  time  previously  the  young  people,  at  least,  had  banteringly 
called  me  by  a  name  that  was  not  now  any  longer  considered 
complimentary,  for  they  had  named  me  Kets-ithl-to  ("  Cricket  " 
or  "  Happy  Insect "),  since  I  was  forever  "  whistling  and  sing- 
ing, moving  and  jumping  about,  running  hither  and  thither 
over  the  housetops  and  up  and  down  ladders,  without  ever 
staying  myself  to  behave  seemly  or  with  dignity,"  so  they  said. 

When  at  last  the  child  is  released  from  daily  bondage  to  the 
cradle  board — which  it  has  learned  to  love  and  laugh  at — even 
before  it  can  walk,  as  soon  as  it  can  creep  about  and  begin  to 
babble,  the  mother  takes  it  in  her  arms  and  carries  it  with  her 


36  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

when  mealtimes  come,  and  each  time,  she  takes  a  little  pinch  of 
each  kind  of  the  food,  and  breathing  upon  it  and  presenting  it  to 
the  lips  of  the  little  one  also,  whispers  into  its  ear,  be  it  boy  or 
girl,  its  first  oral  lesson,  which  is  a  prayer  to  the  beloved  gods 
and  souls  of  the  ancestors: 

"  Isd!  Ndna-kwe,  teu-ko-lia  tap-te,  i'  taw-ina-we;  yam  kwa- 
hothl  tem-thla  teni  hallo-illin  i'llup-a'-teu-na  kya,  haw-no  ton  dn- 
ik-tchia-nap-tu,  yam  te-ko-ha-na  ta-tchoi! 

"  Yan-ha-ku  na,  '  Jiua  '  tchi-ta  tsa-na !  " 

Free  translation:  "  Take,  oh,  ye  ancients,  this  offering,  what 
though  poor  it  be,  and  of  it  eat:  and  of  your  all  abundant  good 
fortune,  difficult  for  us  to  have  in  life,  unto  us  grant  of  it  as  ye 
will,  and  light  of  your  favor  withal." 

"  Breathe  'hua,'  little  motherling,"  she  continues,  herself 
breathing  over  the  food  as  she  casts  it  into  the  fire.  And  never, 
even  though  it  be  "  said  in  the  heart  alone  "  when  strangers  are 
by,  is  this  prayer  and  sacrifice  so  early  taught,  omitted  by  man, 
woman,  or  child  of  Zuni-land  in  after  Hfe,  at  any  meal. 

And  now  proverbs  without  number,  centuries  old,  are  re- 
peated to  the  little  child,  varied  according  as  it  be  boy  or  girl, 
especially  by  the  oldest  members  of  the  household,  as  they  sit 
by  the  fire,  night  or  morning,  and  unweariedly  play  with  this 
new  member  of  the  home. 

"  Look  at  the  bow  and  quiver  on  the  wall,"  says  the  scarred 
old  warrior,  "  and  at  the  beads  on  my  wristlet,  that  mark  the 
bad  men  I  have  slain  so  that  your  mother  might  be  spared  to 
bear  you,  ungrateful  little  man!  Yet  here  sit  I,  with  snow  of 
many  winters  in  my  hair,  unharmed!  It  is  because  I  obeyed 
when  my  grandfather  told  me,  *  Eun  early  to  the  river  and 
brighten  your  eyes  with  water  ere  the  sun  has  melted  the  ice 
therefrom,  that  they  may  keep  bright  and  wakeful  and  see  first 
the  cunning  swift  creatures  of  food  or  the  lurking  foe  who  makes 
tears! '  It  is  because  I  did  this  that  I  sit  here  by  the  warm  fire 
dandling  thee  on  my  knee  and  talking  to  thee.  Hast  thou  been 
to  the  river  this  morning?" 

**  Sit  straight,  little  ones,"  say  these  old  oracles  when  of  an 
evening  in  the  light  of  the  dancing  fire  they  begin  to  tell  one 
of  their  beautiful  tales  of  how  beasts  and  plants  and  men  all 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  37 

talked  together  and  were  children  in  the  great  sky  house  of  the 
gods,  and  helped  them  make  all  things,  "  as  children  ought  al- 
ways to  do — help  their  elders."  "  Sit  straight,  nor  blink  with 
sleepiness.  My  stories  shall  last  until  the  louse  stars  of  the  sky 
pass  over  [the  nebula?  of  the  Milky  Way],  and  whoever  is  caught 
napping  when  they  pass  will  be  spilled  upon,  and  be  a  lousy, 
good-for-nothing  lout,  scratching  himself  instead  of  doing  deeds. 
Think  ye  that  a  boy  who  goes  to  sleep  when  tales  of  heroes  are 
being  told,  or  a  girl  who  dozes  when  some  one  who  is  old  enough 
to  know,  is  telling  how  the  poor  Maid  of  the  Turkeys  won  a  god 
of  the  sky  for  her  suitor  and  slave,  will  see  an  enemy,  when  he 
stealthily  comes,  or  will  win  a  youth  who  can  make  happiness 
and  a  proud  heart  as  well  as  garments?  Sit  straight,  little  women 
and  men,  and  watch  with  wide-open  eyes." 

"  Little  man,"  says  a  mother  to  a  boy  who  has  been  greedy 
and  comes  crying  with  a  swollen  stomach,  "  when  you  ate  this 
morning  you  did  not  lay  your  left  hand  across  your  stomach 
to  keep  the  food  from  coming  too  high!  Do  you  think  that  any 
boy  who  eats  with  both  hands  instead  of  laying  one  across  his 
stomach  will  ever  know  when  to  stop?  Why,  young  men  who 
eat  with  both  hands  go  homeless.  What  maiden  would  want 
such  a  one  to  come  and  live  in  her  house  and  devour  everything 
in  it  forsooth  ?  " 

"  Poor  little  woman,"  she  says  to  her  tiny  girl,  who  has  left 
her  painted  slab  of  a  doll  lying  on  the  floor  instead  of  wrapping 
it  up  and  tying  it  to  the  cradle  board — "  my  poor  little  mother 
of  a  girl,  how  she  will  cry  when  she  loses  the  babies  she  has  let 
to  go  as  they  will!  " 

This  kind  of  talk  to  children,  as  though  they  were  men  and 
women,  is  universal  in  Zuiii.  They  are  never  punished  by  whip- 
ping or  other  hurt,  these  little  children.  Their  longing  to  be 
"  like  big  people  "  is  constantly  appealed  to.  Both  boys  and 
girls  are  dressed  and  trained  as  little  men  and  women.  If  bad, 
they  are  shown  how  "  men  and  women  do  not  behave  like  that." 
And  if  still  incorrigible,  the  masked  demons  they  have  heard 
of  in  the  stories,  with  staring  eyes,  are  summoned,  and  their 
resistance  is  at  an  end.  And  so  these  dear  little  brown-eyed, 
smooth-skinned  mites  who  tagged  me  or  hung  around  me  by 
4 


38  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

dozens,  though  veritable  children,  dirty  and,  when  at  play,  noisy 
to  the  last  degree,  were  so  quaintly  old-fashioned  in  behavior 
whenever  I  talked  to  them  or  particularly  noticed  them,  and 
were  so  gentle  to  one  another  and  especially  to  their  elders 
withal,  that  I  came  to  love  them  as  I  have  loved  no  other  chil- 
dren on  earth. 

The  lives  they  lead  and  the  training  they  receive  is  to  the 
last  degree  interesting,  and  it  is  instructive  too.  It  is  a  strange 
blending  of  never-neglected  religious  and  practical  instruction  in 
the  ways  and  ideals  of  their  elders.  I  would  fain,  therefore,  de- 
scribe it  in  detail,  but  that  would  require  hours,  and  I  have  to 
make  haste  lest  I  intrude  unwarrantably  on  the  time  of  others 
who  are  to  follow,  and  tax  further  your  own  kind  patience. 

I  must  not  omit,  however,  to  tell  you  somewhat  concerning 
the  later  training  of  these  dusky  little  children  of  the  Earth  and 
Sun.  There  comes  a  great  day  for  all  of  them  who  chance  to  be 
about  three  years  old,  when  late  autumn  comes,  and  the  har- 
vest, or  "  gifts  of  the  beloved  gods  of  wind  and  the  rain,"  has 
been  gathered  in.  For  this  is  the  Christmastide  of  Zuni-land, 
when  the  mothers  take  all  the  children  of  that  age,  full  dressed 
as  little  men  and  women,  into  the  great  square  dance  court  in 
the  midst  of  the  many-terraced  houses,  and  sit  there  with  them 
on  gay-colored  rugs  and  blankets  around  the  southern  edge  of 
the  plaza,  which  is  especially  reserved  for  them.  Then  the  long 
line  of  dancers,  gorgeously  plumed,  painted,  and  appareled,  and 
startlingly  masked,  to  represent  the  gods  of  creation  time,  file  in 
to  the  sound  of  rattle  and  drum  and  reed,  and  perform  their 
majestic,  loud-songed  dramas,  and  tell  again — hoping  thereby 
to  renew  in  some  measure  the  time  thereof — the  story  of  creation, 
when  all  things  were  new.  These  dancers  bring,  in  bundles  sus- 
pended to  their  backs  and  in  their  hands,  mysterious  packages, 
decked  out  with  sprigs  of  evergreen  and  strings  of  white  pop- 
corn. These,  ere  they  begin  the  drama,  are  laid  in  orderly  rows 
upon  the  smooth  and  beaten  ground.  There  are  ten  clowns, 
so  grotesquely  disguised  in  warty,  close-fitting  masks  which 
wholly  cover  their  heads,  and  with  paint  and  scant  tattered 
clothing,  that  they  look  like  human  reptiles  who  have  crawled 
forth  from  some  pool  of  red  mud  and  on  whom  the  mud  has 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  39 

dried.  They  are  comical  creatures,  but,  in  truth,  are  some  of 
the  gravest  priests  in  the  tribe,  whose  mission  it  is,  in  this  guise, 
to  amuse  the  spectators  while  the  dramatists  are  resting;  and 
yet,  with  all  their  buffoonery  and  wit,  to  act  as  choruses  and 
convey  to  the  uninitiated,  especially  to  the  children,  the  meaning 
of  these  sacred  performances.  They  gather  around  the  bundles 
that  have  been  laid  down,  and  appropriate  them  with  loud  talk 
and  much  pretense  at  speculation  regarding  their  contents. 
Then,  when  the  drama  is  closed,  and  in  the  wake  of  a  solemn 
priest,  sprinkling  prayer  meal  as  he  goes,  the  performers  retire, 
these  clowns  take  up  the  bundles  and  open  them,  and  seem  to 
be  surprised  that  one  after  another  proves  to  hold  a  present  for 
this  little  one  or  that.  There  are  beautifully  painted  bows  and 
arrows,  to  which  are  tied  little  loaves  of  bread  and  cake  made 
into  figures  and  symbols  of  deer  and  antelopes  and  mountain 
sheep  and  other  animals  of  the  chase.  And  there  are  also  minia- 
ture cradle  boards  elaborately  decorated  with  plumes,  and  upon 
them  are  laced  gorgeous  but  hideously  carved  and  painted  figures 
of  the  dancers  who  have  just  gone  away,  representing  the  an- 
cient gods  of  creation,  each  of  the  kind  that  belongs  especially  to 
the  clan  institution  of  the  little  one  for  whom  it  is  designed. 
It  is  chiefly  by  the  symbolism  of  the  bows  and  arrows  and  other 
miniature  implements  of  the  chase  and  husbandry  (for  the 
boys),  and  by  the  totemic  characters  portrayed  in  the  sacred 
dolls  (for  the  little  girls),  that  these  old  clowns  are  enabled  in- 
stantly to  recognize  each  present  as  destined  particularly  for 
this  child  or  that  one. 

And  now  they  take  them  up  and  dangle  them  in  the  air 
with  the  most  ludicrous  gestures  and  postures,  and  slowly  ad- 
vance with  them  toward  the  children  to  whom  they  are  to  be 
given.  The  children,  feeling  that  they  must  behave  as  men 
and  women,  are  stoical  and  will  not  cry,  though  they  are  sorely 
frightened  by  the  singular  beings  that  thus  come  near  to  them 
and  talk  so  very  loudly,  and  many  of  them  hide  their  faces  in 
the  dresses  of  their  mothers.  Yet  they  are  induced  by  much 
coaxing  and  talking  and  by  explanations  as  to  what  these  things 
are,  and  as  to  how  they  should  be  used  by  little  men  and  women, 
that  at  last  they  stretch  out  their  tiny  hands  and  receive  the 


40  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

gifts.  The  sage  priest-clowns  never  fail,  as  they  hand  them  over, 
to  repeat  many  proverbs  for  the  guidance  of  these  little  ones, 
and  especially  to  instruct  them  in  the  prayers  and  rituals  they 
are  to  use  in  connection  with  them,  for  they  themselves  will 
some  day  perform  in  the  sacred  dramas.  Then,  too,  when  they 
are  taken  home  with  these  precious  toys  that  pertain  alike  to 
the  religion  and  the  works  of  their  elders,  the  mothers  fail  no 
less  to  remind  them  from  day  to  day  of  the  instructions  they 
have  heard  from  "  the  good  ancient  ones."  So,  while  the  little 
boys  play  at  hunting  with  their  bows  and  arrows,  and  the  little 
girls  play  at  caring  for  children  with  the  ill-favored,  though 
gorgeous  wooden  dolls,  they  are  learning,  my  means  of  a  singular 
sort  of  primitive  kindergarten  method,  the  arts  and  ways  of 
life  that  they  shall  have  more  seriously  to  follow  by  and  by. 
Day  after  day,  while  they  are  playing  with  these  things,  they 
:are  reminded  also  that  other  things  must  be  done,  and  are 
itaught  by  means  of  little  short-cut  formulas,  if  I  may  call  them 
.so — that  is,  little  rituals  or  directions,  often  in  rhyme,  as  old  as 
their  village  itself,  and  so  short  and  so  measured  that  they  may 
easily  be  remembered — just  what  and  just  how  they  shall  do 
things  with  and  for  the  playthings  and  dolls  they  have  been 
given.  When,  for  example,  the  mothers  are  kneading  clay  and 
making  pottery  for  the  household,  they  always  make  some  tiny 
vessels  for  the  little  girls  themselves,  and  while  doing  so  remind 
them  that  their  little  girls  (the  painted  dolls  in  the  plume- 
trimmed  cradles)  must  have  vessels  too;  and  so  these  diminutive 
scraps  of  humanity  very  seriously  yet  delightedly  join  in  the 
work,  making  vessels  for  their  babies,  thus  learning,  long  before 
they  are  grown,  the  arts  of  their  maturer  years.  Thus,  too, 
when,  early  in  the  morning,  the  corn  is  being  ground  to  meal 
and  flour  on  the  flat  millstones  in  the  trough  by  the  side  of  the 
fireplace,  they  are  cautioned  that  their  little  doll  children  should 
be  provided  with  food,  and,  with  like  gravity  and  joy,  they  join 
in  this  other  work  of  their  mothers  and  elder  sisters.  Thus 
the  play  life  of  these  little  children  in  Zufii,  whether  they  be 
boys  or  girls,  is  ever  made  to  simulate  the  real  life  of  their 
elders,  and  hence  very  early  they  come  to  learn  familiarly  the 
duties  and  the  arts  of  the  time  of  maturity. 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  41 

But  even  before  that  time  their  more  serious  duties  begin. 
Scarcely  are  the  little  girls  grown  as  high  as  one's  hand  ere 
they  are  given  charge  of  their  baby  brothers  and  sisters;  and 
when  these  are  released  from  the  cradle  boards  and  allowed  to  play 
upon  the  floor,  or  are  to  be  taken  out  for  an  airing,  the  little 
sisters,  scarce  larger  than  themselves,  are  taught  how  to  bundle 
them  up  in  their  mantles  and  so,  carry  them  on  their  backs. 
It  is  a  singular  picture  they  make  of  a  summer  afternoon  around 
the  sunny  outskirts  of  the  ancient  town.  The  babies  have  very 
big  heads,  almost  as  large  as  those  of  the  sisters  who  carry  them, 
and  as  these  sisters  carry  them  flat  against  their  backs,  closely 
held  in  the  blankets  that  envelop  themselves  as  well — when  you 
look  at  them  from  a  short  distance  it  seems  exactly  as  though 
two-headed  children  were  coming  toward  you!  But  these  little 
bits  of  mothers  never  let  their  baby  brothers  or  sisters  come 
to  harm,  never  neglect  them  for  a  moment,  and  learn  ere  they 
are  grown  old  enough,  we  would  think,  to  run  about  freely 
by  themselves,  all  the  practical  duties  of  maternity.  I  may  as 
well  add  here,  as  elsewhere,  that  as  they  grow  older  and  older, 
yet  long  before  they  are  grown  to  young  maidenhood,  they  are 
instructed  fully  and  carefully  and  candidly  in  all,  not  only  of 
what  is  practical,  but  also  in  the  mysteries  of  their  missions  in 
life  as  mothers,  and  both  the  women  and  men  talk  to  their  boys 
also,  never  reserving,  as  we  so  curiously  and  timorously  do, 
aught  that  they  should  know  about  that  which  relates  so  vitally 
to  their  destined  relations  in  family  life. 

This,  indeed,  is  the  keynote  of  the  thoughts  and,  I  may 
almost  say,  of  the  religion  of  these  people,  for  more  than  any- 
thing else  they  worship  the  sun  and  the  moon,  the  earth  and 
phenomena  of  the  seasons,  personified  chiefly  in  relation  to 
reproductivity  and  growth.  In  other  words,  these  people  are  so- 
called  "  Phallic  worshipers,"  but  a  far  better  name  for  this 
kind  of  worship  would  be  "  Mother  worshipers."  I  have  scant 
patience  with  those  of  our  race  who  denounce,  on  the  mere  no- 
tion that  its  name  conveys,  this  religion  of  reproduction;  for  in 
reality  although  one  of  the  earliest,  it  is  certainly  also  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  of  the  religions  of  mankind.  We  hear  much 
about  sensuosity  and  indecency  as  connected  with  the  cere- 


42  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

monials  of  this  worship,  but,  believe  me,  such  claims  are  in  most 
cases  due  to  the  evil  imaginations  or  else  misinterpretations  of 
those  who  make  them.  There  is  certainly  no  truth  in  their  alle- 
gations regarding  the  worship  of  reproductivity,  so  long,  at  least, 
as  it  is  associated  or  identified  with  the  matriarchal  phase  of 
human  development,  with  the  worship  of  motherhood. 

You  have  seen,  by  what  I  have  said  in  an  earlier  paragraph, 
the  moral  influence  that  the  constant  dominion  of  mother  wor- 
ship has  over  the  minds  of  its  votaries — an  influence  more  con- 
stant, beautiful,  and  effectual  than  that  of  any  number  of  pre- 
cepts which  could  be  taught  would  have — and  I  can  easily  ex- 
plain the  evil  repute  that  this  worship  has  gained,  in  the  same 
way  in  which  I  have  explained  the  debasement  of  woman  here 
among  our  native  Indian  tribes,  when  property  right  and  mother 
right  were  transferred  from  woman  to  man,  and  to  father  right — 
just  as  this  old  worship  was  transferred  and  degraded,  by  sur- 
vival into  patriarchal  times  in  the  Old  World. 

Let  me  give  you  one  more  instance  before  I  close  of  the  in- 
fluences of  such  beliefs.  They  are  not  only  continuous,  as  I 
have  said,  but,  according  to  their  teachings,  women  are  the  cre- 
ators of  being,  and  this  is  believed  so  profoundly  that  nothing 
which  the  women  touch  or  make  is  supposed  to  lack,  when  it 
come  from  their  hands,  life  in  some  form  or  other.  I  was  sitting 
one  day,  during  the  second  summer  of  my  stay  with  the  Zunis, 
in  the  upper  or  summer  room  of  our  house,  watching  a  little 
company  of  women  making  food  and  water  vessels.  They  had 
formed  the  vessels  by  coiling  up  ropes  of  clay  and  deftly  welding 
and  shaping  them,  on  little  molds  that  turned  upon  the  floor, 
with  scrapers  of  gourd  rind.  They  had  smoothed  and  dried  the 
vases  and  bowls,  and  now,  finally,  they  were  painting  them  with 
various  symbols  that  suited  them,  so  they  thought,  to  use  in  their 
own  particular  families — that  is,  related  them  to  themselves. 
I  observed  that  they  did  not  close  the  bands  of  paint  which  they 
drew  around  the  upper  parts  of  these  vessels,  and  so  I  suddenly 
asked: 

"Why  do  you  leave  that  little  space  near  the  rim  of  each 
jar,  open?" 

They  were  startled,  and  immediately  hushed  me.     "  Do  not 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  43 

speak,"  whispered  they.  "  These  are  the  children  of  our  hands, 
and  are  not  yet  born,  and  are  therefore  ai'-ya-vwi  " — "  very  ten- 
der and  susceptible."  And  taking  me  aside,  one  of  them  fur- 
ther explained  that  they  left  these  little  spaces  in  order  that 
the  vessels  might  breathe  in  the  fire  when  burned,  and  not 
break,  and  also  keep  their  contents  of  food  and  water  good  and 
alive.  And  then  they  went  on  with  the  painting  of  the  decora- 
tions, and  I  noticed  that  whenever  any  one  of  them  had  nearly 
closed  the  bands  around  the  jars  or  bowls  she  turned  her  eyes 
away,  as  she  finished  the  ends  of  the  lines,  lest  by  accident  she 
might  happen  to  close  them  in  her  own  sight,  and  thus  be  held 
guilty  of  having  done  so  purposely  or  knowingly — that  is,  within 
her  own  sight — and  my  old  sister,  who  was  among  them,  ex- 
plained to  me  afterward  that  if  any  of  them  chanced  thus  "  know- 
ingly "  to  close  a  jar,  her  own  source  of  life  might  be  closed  by 
the  guilt,  and  her  own  children  sicken  and  die,  or  go  blind,  or 
come  to  some  other  evil. 

I  offer  this  as  an  example  of  the  mood  in  which  these  little 
women,  from  youth  to  oldest  age,  do  all  the  things  they  have 
to  do,  with  reverence  of  their  idea  of  themselves  as  the  creators 
of  being,  and  this  belief  of  theirs  is  so  fundamental  that,  when 
a  man  finishes  an  implement  of  husbandry — as,  for  example,  the 
sticks  of  the  family  loom  or  a  tilling  staff,  with  which  the  corn 
is  planted — this  implement,  so  associated  with  the  needs  of  life, 
is  not  considered  fully  alive,  not  born,  until  he  brings  it  to  the 
matron  of  his  home,  as  household  priestess,  and  presents  it  to 
her  over  the  hearth,  that  she,  being  a  mother,  may  breathe  upon 
it  and  give  it  life,  and  therewith  the  ability  to  foster  fertility  in 
the  works  that  it  shall  be  used  for  doing. 

I  can  not  refrain  from  giving  you  one  more  illustration  of 
this  curious  and  beautiful  phase  of  thought  and  belief.  When 
the  cornfield  is  planted  in  Zuni,  after  it  has  been  duly  laid  out  by 
an  initiated  priest  and  priestess,  the  men  take  their  planting 
sticks — which  are  spud-shaped  implements  of  wood,  with  a  con- 
venient prong  left  near  the  lower  end,  for  the  foot — and  with 
them  dig  deep  holes  in  the  soil.  Into  each  of  these  they  drop 
several  kernels  of  corn,  and  carefully  cover  them  over  with  the 
loosened  soil.  Only  the  fathers  do  this  dropping  of  the  corn, 


4-J.  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

because  they  are  the  givers  of  seed,  in  life.  Then  the  women — 
at  least  ceremonially — nurse  these  grains  of  corn  until  they  begin 
to  sprout,  and  the  children  it  is,  that  weed  the  young  shoots. 
When  the  plants  are  grown  a  little  larger  the  youth  lead  in  hoe- 
ing them,  and  when  the  corn  is  in  milk,  and  just  about  to  come 
to  maturity,  the  unmarried  maidens  of  the  tribe  watch  the  ripen- 
ing fields  from  little  booths  that  are  built  for  them  by  their 
lovers.  When  the  first  ears  are  gathered,  the  mothers  and  ma- 
trons of  the  family  are  the  ones  who  must  pick  them,  ere  the 
full  crop  is  gathered  in;  and  the  lingering  ears  of  the  corn, 
that  are  not  quite  ripe  when  the  frost  kills  and  sears  the  leaves, 
are  watched  over  and  picked  by  the  old  grandmothers  and  grand- 
fathers of  the  tribe,  until  they  can  be  garnered.  The  corn  is  re- 
garded, since  it  is  supposed  to  have  sprung  from  the  seven  celes- 
tial virgins,  the  Corn  Maidens  and  Youth  of  the  Dew,  in  olden 
time,  to  be,  above  all  other  growing  things,  the  human  plant  of 
the  world,  and  so,  according  to  the  various  stages  and  periods  of 
its  growth,  it  must  be  attended  first  by  the  children,  then  by  the 
youth,  then  by  the  mothers  and  fathers,  and  finally  by  the 
grandmothers  and  grandfathers  of  the  tribe,  that  it  may  be  per- 
fected as  human  food  and  the  seed  of  human  food! 

I  will  not  draw  morals  from  the  tale  of  primitive  mother- 
hood that  I  have  been  telling,  nor  will  I  pronounce  homilies 
thereon,  for  morals  are  less  irksome  if  inferred,  and  homilies 
are  tedious  and  presumptuous  if  pronounced.  We  know  that 
the  primitive  child- wo  man  I  have  so  told  you  of,  is  mistaken  in 
-believing  as  she  does  that,  for  instance,  by  touch  or  breath  she 
can  infuse  into  the  insentient  household  things  she  makes  some- 
what of  the  vitality,  of  the  life,  she  gives  to  her  beloved  little 
children.  Yet,  after  all,  it  still  seems  to  me  beautiful  that  so 
she  thinks.  I  can  not  help  feeling,  whatever  science  and  prac- 
tical sense  may  say,  that  some  part  of  the  gracious  and  tender 
and  living  presence  of  a  woman  is  communicated  to  the  things 
she  uses  and  the  home  she  makes  and  abides  in.  Only  less  lovely 
and  sweet  and  living  than  herself  does  this  presence  that  she 
somehow  creates  and  leaves  when  she  goes  away,  seem  to  me; 
and  this  I  recognize  as  feelingly  as  did  the  men  of  ancient  days, 
who  actually  believed  what  I  feel,  and  lived  the  better  therefor. 


PRIMITIVE  MOTHERHOOD.  45 

Believing  as  she  does,  the  primitive  mother  knows  none  of  the 
longings  or  crimes  against  her  estate,  against  the  being  she  may 
create,  that  are  so  associated  with  the  later,  the  patriarchal  and 
derived  phases  of  existence.  Her  own  faith  in  her  natural  mis- 
sion in  life  begets  the  same  faith  in  her  sons,  her  brothers,  her 
husband,  and  leads  to  her  actual  as  well  as  theoretical  supremacy 
among  her  people. 

No,  her  spirit  is  born,  after  all,  of  the  relationship  which 
seems  so  very  large  to  her  and  to  her  people — her  relationship  to 
her  little  child — and  which  is  so  truly  great  that  you,  who  have 
little  ones  yourselves,  what  though  the  notes  and  the  words  be 
strange  to  you,  will  recognize  its  meaning  in  the  lullaby  song  I 
used  to  hear  them  sing  as  they  tossed  their  tiny  babies  up  and 
down  in  those  little  cradle  boards,  and  which,  in  closing,  I  will 
sing  that  you  may  so  recognize  it. 

ZUNI   LULLABY. 

(TO   BOY   BABY.) 

E-lu  haw-no  tu-tu  tsa-na, 
Ak'-tsik  tsa-na,  6t-si  tsa-na ; 
We-tsi  te-na  thla-tan  a-na, 
6k-tsik  tsa-na  ta-pan  an-a ! 

(Refrain.) 

He-lu  he-lu  he-lu  he-lu 
E-lu'  E-lu. 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

E-lu  haw-no  wi-ha  tsa-na, 
Ak-tsik  tsa-na,  6t-si  tsa-na; 
6t-si  tsa-na  thla-tan  a-na, 
Tu-tu  tsa-na  tu-tu  tsa-na. 

(Refrain.) 

He-lu  he-lu  he-lu  he-lu 
E-lu'  E-lu. 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

(TO   GIRL    BABY.) 

E-lu  haw-no  a-sho  tsa-na 
Kyat'-sik  tsa-na  6-kya  tsa-na 
We-tse  te-na  i-tah-na-na 
Tchi-ta  tsa-na  yo-a-na-na. 


46  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

(Refrain.) 

He-lu  he-lu  he-lu  he-lu 
E-lu'  E-lu. 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

E-lu  haw-no  wi-ha  tsa-na 
A-sho  tsa-na  6-kya  tsa-na, 
E-lua  haw-no  tsi-ta  tsa-na. 
He-lu  haw-no  a-sho  tsa-na ! 

(Refrain.) 

He-lu  he-lu  he-lu  he-lu 
E-lu'  E-lu. 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

TRANSLATION  (Boy  lullaby.) 

Such  a  joy !  our  little  man  child, 
Little  boy,  little  man ; 
Soon  will  he  to  hunt  be  going, 
Little  rabbits  will  be  running ! 

(Refrain.) 
Joyful,  joyful,  joyful,  joyful, 

Such  a  joy ! 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

Such  a  joy,  our  little  baby, 
Little  boy,  little  man ; 
Little  man  a-hunting  going, 
Little  man  child,  little  man  child ! 

(Refrain.) 
Joyful,  joyful,  joyful,  joyful, 

Such  a  joy ! 
(Repeat  refrain.) 

TRANSLATION  (Girl  lullaby). 

Such  a  joy  our  little  maid  child, 
Little  girl,  little  woman  : 
Soon  will  she  be  wooed  and  wedded — 
Little  motherling  becoming ! 

(Refrain.) 
Joyful,  joyful,  joyful,  joyful, 

Such  a  joy ! 
(Repeat  refrain.) 


MOTHERS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WORLD.       47 

Such  a  joy  our  little  baby, 
Little  maid  child,  little  woman, 
Little  woman,  little  mother ! 
Such  a  joy  our  little  maid  child ! 

(Refrain.) 
Joyful,  joyful,  joyful,  joyful, 

Such  a  joy ! 
(Repeat  refrain.) 


MOTHEKS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WOKLD— DAY 
NURSERIES. 

BY  MRS.  LUCY  S.  BAINBRIDGE, 
New  York  City. 

WHEN  the  arm  is  wielded  by  a  brain  trained  in  the  schools, 
or  when  it  is  matured  by  all  the  culture  of  a  beautiful  home,  it 
is  very  easy  for  us  to  say,  "  The  arm  that  rocks  the  cradle  rules 
the  world."  But  when  that  arm  has  been  roughened  by  toil,  and 
the  cradle  is  a  dilapidated  rocking-chair,  it  is  not  so  easy  to  real- 
ize the  power  of  the  mother  behind  it. 

The  immortal  Lincoln  said,  as  you,  of  course,  remember, 
"  All  that  I  am,  and  all  that  I  can  hope  to  be,  I  owe  to  my 
mother  ";  and  that  mother  lived  in  a  cabin,  and  was  a  woman 
of  toil. 

What  are  the  conditions  existing  in  the  submerged  world — 
among  the  mothers  of  that  under  world,  the  world  of  poverty? 
Perhaps  one  letter  of  the  alphabet  alone  could  be  used  as  an 
initial  in  the  description — the  letter  D.  One  of  the  first  condi- 
tions of  the  submerged  world  which  we  must  consider  is  Dark- 
ness, because  the  larger  number  of  the  women  in  that  world  live, 
eat,  sleep,  and  raise  their  children  in  semilight.  It  seems  as  if  it 
might  be  easy  enough  to  have  God's  sunshine  and  pure  air  even 
in  our  great  cities;  but  this  is  not  always  the  case,  and  many 
mothers  of  the  submerged  world  do  not  share  with  us  these 
blessings. 


48  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Another  evil  naturally  follows — that  is,  Dirt.  The  mother 
of  the  upper  realm  may  say,  as  many  of  you  have  probably  said, 
"  There  is  no  excuse  for  dirt."  The  mother  in  the  submerged 
world  has  often  to  decide  whether  it  shall  be  a  cake  of  soap  or  a 
loaf  of  bread,  and,  with  the  children  hanging  to  her  skirts,  the 
bread  is  bought;  and  the  woman  who  washes  during  the  morn- 
ing and  scrubs  throughout  the  afternoon,  and  then  comes  home 
with  her  back  aching  and  her  knees  sore,  is  easily  enough  in- 
duced to  let  the  little  nine-year-old  house  mother  do  what  scrub- 
bing is  done  at  home,  and  that  is  very  little.  And  then  Disease 
follows  easily,  for  consumption  loves  dark  corners  and  rheu- 
matism is  fond  of  damp  air,  and  these  and  other  ills  feed  on 
the  children  of  poverty.  The  next  one  of  the  temptations 
to  be  mentioned  is  Dress.  Ah,  you  say,  they  are  so  very  poor! 
Yes,  but  the  mother  of  the  submerged  world,  whose  only  music 
throughout  the  day  is  that  made  by  the  rubbing  of  the  wash- 
board, that  mother  will  allow  the  hair  of  her  little  girl  to  grow 
long,  and  loves  to  fondle  it  very  kindly;  and  then  she  scrimps 
the  food  of  the  family  in  order  to  buy  a  gay  hat  to  crown  that 
pretty  head.  And  when  that  child  goes  into  the  factory  the  first 
thing  she  wants  is  cheap  jewelry  and  cheaper  lace — I  have  known 
a  girl  in  a  home  where  the  only  skillet  for  all  the  roasting, 
frying,  and  boiling  Avas  a  cracked  iron  affair,  which  was  all 
that  family  could  afford,  and  yet  that  girl  appeared  upon  the 
streets  in  light-blue  silkaline  and  yellow  kids.  Extravagance 
in  dress  is  one  of  the  evil  conditions  of  the  submerged  world. 
Then  naturally  follows  Debt,  because  this  induces  buying  on 
the  installment  plan  and  on  credit;  and  then  Distress  follows, 
and  then  easily  we  can  follow  on  to  the  Drink,  the  Disaster,  and 
the  Death. 

What  is  going  to  be  done  with  these  women?  Practically, 
what  are  you  going  to  do  with  these  conditions  which  exist  in 
that  world,  wherever  you  find  it,  whether  it  be  in  New  York 
or  any  other  city?  I  feel  to-day  something  like  a  diver  coming 
up  from  the  depths  of  darkness  into  this  beautiful  American 
city.  I  hardly  know  how  to  talk  to  you  of  the  bright  upper 
world  about  the  darkness  and  depth  below.  But  it  is  a  practical 
theme,  and  all  of  us  should  be  in  some  way  practically  inter- 


MOTHERS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WORLD.       49 

ested.  One  of  the  first  ways  to  help  the  women  of  the  submerged 
world  is  by  personal  contact — personal  visiting,  personal  interest, 
and  kindness.  I  do  not  mean  that  we  are  to  go  to  the  women 
of  the  submerged  world  in  our  finest  costumes,  and  in  a  patron- 
izing way,  gathering  our  skirts  about  us,  give  them  alms,  await- 
ing their  "  God  bless  you! "  but  we  should  go  to  them  in  our 
kindest  manner,  with  tact  and  wisdom,  becoming  their  friends. 
Some  people  say  that  the  first  need  of  the  submerged  world  is 
better  tenements.  But  it  seems  to  me  that  we  must  first  ele- 
vate the  woman  herself,  and  then  she  will  be  capable  of  using 
a  b'etter  tenement.  The  woman,  the  mother,  must  be  helped 
by  other  women.  In  the  work  I  represent  in  New  York  there 
are  fifty  earnest  women,  ten  of  whom  are  nurses,  who  are  trained 
for  efficient  service,  and  are  giving  their  lives  to  this  house-to- 
house  ministry  in  the  homes  of  the  lower  part  of  our  crowded 
city.  While  I  would  not  underestimate  Bible  instruction,  our 
first  efforts  are  with  the  body.  We  must  reach  souls  through 
these  houses  of  clay,  for  God  hal^i  joined  them  together  and  we 
may  not  put  them  asunder.  The  trained  nurse  is  able  to  open 
a  wide  door  into  homes  of  the  poor,  and  other  workers  may 
easily  follow  with  patient  teaching  and  training. 

Ignorance  is  often  the  first  cause  of  misery,  and  children  are 
poorly  nourished  because  the  mother,  married  young  from  fac- 
tory life,  does  not  know  the  A  B  C  of  home-keeping.  These 
mothers  need  to  be  taught  how  to  cook  and  what  to  buy  and 
what  to  do  with  their  old  bread  and  how  to  manage  a  day's  wage 
to  make  it  better  meet  the  wants  of  the  family.  The  parent 
comes  from  the  day's  toil,  and  Johnny  is  sent  out,  it  may  be, 
for  a  piece  of  Bologna  sausage,  and  Mary  for  baker's  bread,  and 
one  of  the  others  for  beer,  or  strong  coffee  is  made,  and  on  that 
kind  of  a  meal  these  growing  children  are  fed.  With  such  a  diet 
,they  can  not  resist  the  strains  that  come  upon  body  and  soul. 
Let  me  add  one  suggestion  in  this  line:  If  you  go  to  such  women 
and  say,  ever  so  kindly,  "  You  are  poor;  here  is  a  kind  of  food 
which  is  good  for  poor  people  and  within  your  means/'  you  will 
find  that  they  do  not  want  it.  They  want  to  eat  the  same  kind 
of  food  that  you — the  people  up  town — eat.  I  had  at  one  time 
a  company  of  mothers  gathered  together  to  whom  I  was  en- 


50  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

deavoring  to  teach  something  of  this  kind,  and  I  took  a  can  of 
tomatoes  and  a  quart  of  milk  and  so  combined  them  as  to  make 
a  very  reasonably  priced  soup  for  a  family  (you  all  know  what 
bisque  soup  is);  and  in  teaching  them  to  make  it,  I  said,  "  The 
first  time  I  ever  took  dinner  at  a  Governor's  house  we  had  this 
kind  of  soup,  and  it  was  his  favorite  soup."  Immediately  after 
this  there  was  quite  a  raid  made  upon  the  grocery  store  in  that 
vicinity  for  cans  of  tomatoes,  because  they  all  wanted  to  eat  what 
Governors  eat.  In  your  dealings  with  these  people  of  the  sub- 
merged world,  you  must  give  them  the  thought  that  you  are 
not  coming  down  to  them,  but  recognize  that  you  stand  with 
them.  One  young  woman  in  New  York  voiced  the  feelings  of 
many  by  the  words,  "  I  am  willing  to  have  it  said  that  I  belong 
to  the  poorer  classes,  but  not  to  the  lower  classes." 

Another  way  of  reaching  the  women  is  to  go  into  the  homes 
and  teach  the  mother  how,  even  in  quarters  so  cramped  that  the 
five  or  six  members  of  one  family  must  occupy  two  small  rooms, 
modesty  may  be  preserved.  Among  these  people  there  are  many 
who  are  very  careful,  and  manage  adroitly  in  curtaining  off  a 
part  of  their  abode  so  that  they  live  very  decently  in  very  small 
space.  They  are  capable  of  being  taught  by  the  tactful  friendly 
person  who  goes  to  them. 

Another  thought:  We  should  teach  the  mothers  how  to 
amuse  their  children.  When  the  child  in  the  "  upper  realm  " 
plays,  you  will  notice  that  that  child  imitates  its  mother.  She 
receives  and  pays  visits;  hence  the  child  dresses  in  old  finery  and 
receives  and  pays  visits  with  her  playmates.  The  child  of  the 
submerged  world,  whose  mother  toils  over  the  tub  all  day  or 
goes  out  to  clean  offices,  has  little  to  imitate  that  is  pleasant. 
The  street  is  the  playground,  and  its  influence  full  of  evil.  I 
have  been  surprised  at  the  quickness  with  which  the  women  of 
the  submerged  world  have  taken  up  this  new  thought  of  their 
trying  to  amuse  their  children  and  yet  not  stop  work.  In  one 
tenement  the  little  ones  play  doctor,  the  mother  suggesting  now 
and  then  the  different  ailments.  With  a  pair  of  blunt  scissors 
and  a  newspaper,  and  with  dolls  made  from  clothespins,  many 
a  poor  child  can  spend  a  happy  hour. 

Another  and  most  important  lesson  needed  to  be  taught  in 


MOTHERS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WORLD.       51 

these  homes  is  to  show  the  mother  how  she  can  gain  and  keep 
the  respect  of  her  child.  The  great  trouble  in  our  large  cities, 
and  one  which  leads  to  the  anarchism,  socialism,  or  any  other 
bad  ism,  is  that  the  mothers  lose  the  hold  they  have  upon  their 
children,  and  the  child  ceases  to  obey  or  respect  her.  The  boy 
who  scoffs  at  mother's  authority  will  soon  defy  the  law  of  the 
land.  You  remember  the  story  of  the  prisoner  who,  on  his  way 
to  jail,  turned  to  his  mother,  an  aged  woman,  as  though  he 
wished  to  kiss  her,  and  when  she  turned  her  face  to  him  he  put 
his  teeth  in  her  cheek,  and  said,  "  If  it  had  not  been  for  you,  if 
you  had  made  me  mind  you,  I  wouldn't  be  a  criminal."  These 
mothers  are  willing  to  learn  how  to  cultivate  respect  for  them- 
selves in  their  children,  but  they  do  not  know  how  of  themselves. 
They  need  to  be  told  of  a  better  way  to  make  a  child  obedient 
than  slapping  the  child  on  the  head  or  screaming  at  it.  These 
mothers  have  the  habit  of  frightening  and  lying  to  their  chil- 
dren. But  many  people  in  the  upper  world  as  well  as  in  the 
submerged  do  that  to  gain  temporary  power. 

There  are  various  plans  of  reading  carried  on  for  these  moth- 
ers of  whom  I  speak.  Doubtless  yon  are  familiar  with  that 
called 

HOME    STUDY    OF    THE   BIBLE. 

Women  who  work  at  the  washtub  and  with  the  scrubbing 
brush  study  a  few  verses  between  times.  The  visitor  talks  to  her 
of  her  reading  and  helps  her.  Storybooks  are  taken  to  her — 
stories  which  give  her  courage  and  brightness.  "  My  Jimmy 
respects  me  more  now  than  he  used  to  do,"  said  one  mother, 
"because  I  can  talk  about  things." 

Mothers'  meetings  naturally  follow.  In  my  work  we  have 
the  babies,  who  must  come  if  mother  does,  tended  in  another 
room,  so  that  the  tired  arms  may  rest  for  the  hour.  Hot  coffee 
and  buns  warm  the  heart  as  well  as  the  stomach.  Talks  on  how 
to  make  the  poorest  home  a  little  brighter,  how  to  mend  and 
sew,  cook  and  clean,  train  and  nurse  the  babies,  prevent  sick- 
ness, etc.,  are  given.  These  "  prisoners  of  poverty,"  shut  within 
their  narrow  houses,  with  only  the  high  tenement  on  the  oppo- 
site side  of  the  narrow  street,  and  only  the  gossip  of  the  tene- 


52  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ment  to  think  about,  need  to  be  lifted  out  into  a  broader  place. 
We  must  broaden  their  horizon,  tell  them  of  women  who  have 
blessed  the  world — of  women  of  other  lands- and  how  they  live, 
and,  best  of  all,  give  them  the  comfort  of  the  Gospel.  Tell  them 
also  of  the  better  land  which  is  opened  to  her  by  the  promises 
of  God,  that  land  to  which  we  are  all  looking  forward.  And  so 
I  repeat  that  personal  visitation,  personal  instruction,  personal 
influence  from  house  to  house,  hand  to  hand,  and  heart  to  heart, 
afford  the  best  possible  solution  of  the  difficulties  met  with  in 
the  submerged  world. 

My  topic  has  reference  also  to  another  class  of  women  which 
I  am  specially  asked  to  mention — women  who  do  not  specially 
belong  to  the  submerged  world,  but  who  reach  it — I  mean  the 
mothers  of  illegitimate  children.  We  have  in  New  York  a 
society  which  has  been  helping  some  of  these  mothers  by  finding 
for  such  a  mother  a  place  in  the  country,  where  she  may  take 
her  child  with  her.  When  possible,  mother  love  should  be  en- 
couraged, and  by  holding  them  together  for  a  time  at  least  the 
woman  is  kept  from  utter  despair.  Without  hope,  without  love, 
who  can  get  right  or  keep  right?  We  have  a  loving  duty  to  do 
for  these  women,  more  sinned  against  than  sinning,  but  such 
personal  work  as  I  have  outlined  will,  by  the  blessing  of  God, 
help  to  cut  off  the  supply. 

Is  the  picture  of  the  submerged  world,  with  all  its  poverty 
and  ignorance,  too  dark?  There  are  bright  spots.  The  poor  are 
almost  always  ready  to  be  helpful  to  each  other,  and  their  sacri- 
fices in  giving  are  most  noble. 

Only  last  week  a  little  boy,  whose  father  and  mother  had 
died — a  little  foreigner,  unable  to  speak  our  language,  and  liv- 
ing down  in  the  most  miserable  part  of  New  York — was  taken 
in  and  cared  for  by  a  family  almost  without  food.  The  day 
before  they  took  the  child  to  live  with  them  they  had  had  little 
to  eat,  and  at  the  time  they  had  but  one  meal  in  the  house,  but 
in  order  to  help  the  boy  the  man  pawned  his  own  coat.  I  Avill 
defy  any  one  in  the  upper  realm  of  life  to  show  any  kind  of 
charity  equal  to  that. 

A  woman  and  her  family  who  had  lived  in  furnished  rooms 
and  were  unable  to  pay  the  rent  were  put  on  the  street.  They 


MOTHERS  OF  THE  SUBMERGED  WORLD.       53 

had  no  furniture,  but  from  one  friend  and  another  we  secured 
a  bed,  chair,  and  table,  but  lacked  a  stove.  A  poor  woman — as 
poor  as  the  one  who  had  been  placed  upon  the  street — came 
forward  and  gave  her  an  old  stove,  which  was  cracked,  to  be 
sure,  but  would  answer  for  a  time,  and  she  had  her  husband 
carry  it  to  the  new  place.  There  was  no  stovepipe,  and  another 
woman,  equally  poor,  said,  "  I  have  a  pipe  that  she  may  have." 
And  the  stove  was  fitted  into  the  chimney.  The  co-operation, 
the  sympathy  of  the  poor  with  each  other,  is  very  real. 

Take  the  matter  of  sickness.  You  will  find  the  women  of 
the  submerged  world  sitting  up  all  night  with  other  women 
whose  homes  are  desolated  by  sickness  and  death,  and  then  find 
them  going  to  work  the  next  day  as  usual.  I  have  in  mind  the 
case  of  a  boy  whose  father  died  and  whose  mother  married  again, 
and  then  the  mother  died  and  his  stepfather  married  again,  so 
that  I  shall  have  to  leave  it  for  you  to  name  the  relationship; 
but  somebody  six  or  seven  degrees  removed  from  him  took  the 
boy  and  said:  "  You  may  have  a  shakedown  in  the  corner.  We 
are  poor,  but  we  won't  turn  you  out.''  He  was  a  cripple  for  life, 
and  they  were  too  poor  to  feed  him,  but  he  was  fed  by  neighbors 
who  from  their  poverty  threw  down  to  him,  as  he  sat  on  the  back 
steps  a  bone  or  a  crust  of  bread,  or  shared  their  very  scanty  meal 
with  him. 

One  other  thought :  What  the  people  of  the  submerged  world 
are  able  to  accomplish  in  spite  of  crushing  difficulties?  Let  me 
give  one  instance:  A  lad  about  fourteen  years  of  age,  whose 
whole  stock  of  linen  consisted  of  one  collar  and  a  pair  of  cuffs, 
was  so  cared  for  by  his  mother  in  her  poverty  that  every  night 
this  collar  and  these  cuffs  were  made  clean,  and  every  morning 
he  went  out  from  his  attic  home  looking  as  nice  and  fresh  as 
a  boy  would  wish  to  look.  That  lad  has  studied  nights,  his 
mother  has  been  interested  in  every  step  of  his  progress,  and 
from  cash  boy  he  has  taken  a  position  in  one  of  the  large  whole- 
sale stores  of  our  own  city.  He  is  an  active  Christian,  and  from 
the  present  outlook  may  yet  become  a  man  after  the  noble  pat- 
tern of  the  late  William  E.  D'odge. 

I  have  been  asked  to  use  a  part  of  this  time  allotted  to  me 
on  your  programme  in  speaking  of  the  work  done  by  the 
5 


54  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


DAY   NURSERIES. 

Jacob  Kiis  has  written  graphic  stories  of  how,  in  lower  New 
York,  he  has  seen  in  some  of  the  down-town  fires  the  charred 
bodies  of  children  brought  out  from  burning  tenements,  children 
who  had  been  locked  in  while  their  mothers  were  away  at  work. 
When  mother  must  be  breadwinner,  it  is  the  business  of  those 
who  would  build  the  nation  wisely  to  help  her  with  her  children, 
and  to  help  the  mother  by  teaching  her  to  help  herself.  The 
day  nursery  is  one  of  the  best  of  these  methods.  If  you  doubt 
the  need  of  the  day  nursery  in  every  locality  where  there  are 
toiling  mothers,  visit  the  tenements.  Here  a  group  of  children 
cared  for  by  a  paralyzed  grandfather,  there  a  room  where  three 
children  are  locked  in  from  morning  to  night,  and  still  another 
place,  where  children  who  had  been  locked  in  by  their  mothers 
I  saw  engaged  in  holding  a  patriotic  celebration  with  matches 
and  sticks,  and  what  the  end  of  that  conflagration  would  have 
been  had  not  the  play  been  interrupted  you  can  imagine.  At  the 
nursery  the  child  is  trained  to  love  of  cleanliness  and  to  obedi- 
ence; is  taught  how  to  play  and  work  by  kindergarten  plans; 
the  good  food  and  regular  daily  naps,  the  merry  games,  build 
up  the  growing  body. 

The  Virginia  Day  Nursery  of  my  own  society  in  New  York 
is  situated  in  the  crowded  East  Side,  and  from  fifty  to  sixty  little 
ones  daily  enjoy  the  sunny  rooms,  the  plants  and  birds,  the 
kindergarten  and  games.  Mothers  are  able  to  work  better,  be- 
cause they  are  sure  no  harm  can  come  to  their  children.  Healthy, 
happy,  obedient  children  will  make  brighter  homes  and  better 
citizens.  The  home  and  the  citizen  make  the  nation. 

One  other  thought  as  I  close:  There  is  no  wide  chasm  be- 
tween the  avenue  and  the  alley,  and  no  great,  high,  impenetra- 
ble wall  between  the  submerged  world  and  the  world  of  wealth 
or  culture,  ^and  there  are  thousands  who  are  constantly  passing 
from  one  to  the  other.  General  Grant  said,  "  We  are  members 
of  a  republic  in  which  one  man  is  as  good  as  another  before  the 
law,"  and  the  vote  of  the  child  down  in  the  slums  by  and  by 
will  count  for  just  as  much  as  the  vote  of  the  boy  up  on  the 
avenue.  Let  us  make  this  a  personal  matter,  we  mothers  of  the 


WHAT  THE  KINDERGARTEN  MEANS  TO  MOTHERS.        55 

republic.  What  are  we  doing  for  the  homes  of  the  submerged 
world?  No  matter  how  beautiful  may  be  the  edifice  of  our  social 
life,  if  it  is  rotting  at  the  foundation,  that  edifice  will  surely 
fall. 


WHAT  THE  KINDEEGAETEN  MEANS  TO 
MOTHEES. 

BY  Miss  AMALIE  HOPER, 
Chicago,  111. 

IN  the  face  of  the  facts  which  Mr.  Gushing  has  told  us  con- 
cerning the  life  of  the  Indian  mother,  and  in  the  face  of  the 
facts  which  Mrs.  Bainbridge  has  just  recorded  about  the  life  of 
the  down-town  New  York  mother,  let  us  suppose  that  we  live  in 
the  days  of  good  fairies,  and  may  choose  from  all  the  kinds  of 
mothers  in  the  world.  What  kind  of  a  mother  would  we  choose 
here  to-day  for  our  mother?  I  can  not  avoid  a  momentary  feel- 
ing of  discouragement  when  I  hear  such  stories  as  those  we 
have  just  heard  from  this  platform,  and  yet  I  do  know  that  great 
reconstructive  work  is  going  on  also  not  only  under  the  names 
of  philanthropy  and  reform,  but  in  the  thousands  of  homes 
which  have  never  yet  descended  to  that  low  plane  which  makes 
reform  and  philanthropy  necessary.  This  great  current  of  con- 
structive work  should  have  its  representative  right  here  and 
now;  and  I  am  glad  to  speak  to  you  from  the  kindergarten 
standpoint,  considering  the  kindergarten  in  its  general  sense, 
in  its  social  and  educational  significance,  rather  than  as  a  philan- 
thropic factor.  To  be  sure,  the  kindergarten  has  been  one  of 
the  means  of  reconstructing  motherhood  in  its  daily  practice 
in  family  life  in  a  thousand  city  districts  which  have  not  other- 
wise been  reached;  but  I  like  to  think  of  the  work  that  the 
kindergarten  is  doing  at  the  other  end  of  the  social  line,  of  the 
work  which  I  believe  it  has  done  to  bring  many  of  you  mothers 
here  to  this  Congress,  sueh  work  as  to  make  such  a  Congress  as 


56  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

this  a  national  demand.  Such  work  is  its  greatest  glory  and  its 
greatest  credit. 

As  we  speak  of  the  work  of  the  kindergarten,  each  thinks 
immediately  of  the  kindergarten  she  herself  has  seen.  Those 
from  California  will  think  of  the  Silver  Street  Kindergarten, 
and  those  from  New  York  the  particular,  favorite  mission  which 
you  have  visited  or  in  which  you  have  worked,  and  will  recall 
the  class  of  children  and  possibly  the  quality  of  the  kindergartner 
in  charge,  and  all  will  remember  that  it  afforded  a  pretty  sight. 
Why  is  the  kindergarten  a  pleasing  sight  even  under  the  most 
disadvantageous  circumstances?  One  reason  is  that  she  who 
goes  into  that  work  has  laid  upon  her  heart  as  her  chief  work 
that  of  typing  humanity  in  the  best  sense  she  may  to  the  chil- 
dren who  shall  come  to  her.  You  often  hear  that  the  kinder- 
garten philosophy  is  something  so  deep  or  profound  that  not 
every  one  can  comprehend  its  teachings,  or  at  least  that  it  takes 
years  of  study  to  understand  it;  but  I  can  give  you  in  a  few 
words  the  reason  why  that  philosophy  has  come  to  be  so  potent. 
Its  main  and  fundamental  idea  is  that  the  great  function  of  the 
adult  is  not  to  serve  the  child,  not  to  reform  the  child,  not  to 
feed  and  clothe  and  dress  the  child,  but  to  practice  in  the  pres- 
ence of  that  child,  as  a  type,  as  a  pattern,  all  that  the  child 
should  aspire  to  become.  It  sounds  presuming,  does  it  not? 
And  yet  we  do  not  hesitate  to  teach  color  in  the  kindergarten  by 
giving  the  standard,  typical,  pure  colors,  and  our  artist  friends 
think  that  this  is  wise  and  right.  We  teach  form  by  giving 
the  children  the  type  forms,  so  that  they  may  look  out  into  the 
world  and  find  it  simplified  and  classified.  We  present  Nature 
lessons  in  a  large  and  general  way,  so  that  the  child  shall  not 
be  impeded  by  detail  before  he  is  ready  to  use  it,  but  may  go 
out  and  find  the  beautiful  world  a  place  that  is  readable,  even 
though  he  may  never  come  to  study  botany  or  geology.  We 
present  all  the  so-called  lessons  in  the  kindergarten,  whether 
intellectual  or  ethical,  from  the  standpoint  of  fundamental  law 
and  eternal  facts. 

These,  however,  would  not  in  themselves  constitute  a  social 
reform  or  usher  in  an  educational  movement,  but  would  rather 
provide  an  expedient  and  better  method  of  teaching  children, 


WHAT  THE  KINDERGARTEN  MEANS  TO  MOTHERS.        57 

perhaps  economically,  by  ways  and  means  which  are  more  direct 
in  making  them  familiar  with  form  and  color,  and  later  with 
reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  and  still  later  with  science 
and  art.  But  we  go  further  than  this.  We  aim,  as  kindergart- 
ners,  to  consciously  type  the  race  life  to  the  child,  believing  that 
the  purpose  of  adults  "  being  mixed,  as  God  has  mixed  them," 
with  little  children  in  the  human  family,  believing  that  the 
function  and  purpose  of  our  existence  along  with  the  children 
is  to  epitomize  to  them  what  has  gone  before,  and  hold  before 
them  the  reasonable  object  lesson  of  what  is  in  store  for  them. 
We  aim  at  nothing  less  than  the  reflecting  to  the  children  given 
into  our  charge  as  nearly  as  possible,  and  as  impersonally  as  pos- 
sible, the  fair  average  of  a  beautiful,  perfected  human  life.  This 
is  why  it  sometimes  takes  two  years  to  learn  how  to  be  a  good 
kindergartner. 

Why  are  we  always  sorry  when  we  hear  of  little  children 
being  left  as  orphans?  There  are  plenty  of  grown  people  in  the 
world  to  take  care  of  them.  There  are  all  manner  of  institu- 
tions waiting,  and  other  mothers'  hearts  everywhere  ready  to 
take  up  these  children,  and  yet  we  are  invariably  sorry  when 
we  hear  of  a  father  who  is  left  with  three  or  more  little  ones. 
Can  anything  in  the  world  replace  to  the  child  that  peculiar 
quality  not  merely  of  being  loved,  but  of  being  served  and  loved 
at  the  same  time,  which  it  is  the  mother's  privilege  to  afford?  I 
believe  if  we  were  to  generally  accept  as  true  the  claim  of  the 
kindergarten  as  to  what  constitutes  motherhood,  our  State  insti- 
tutions would  be  reformed,  and  while  we  would  not  rest  content 
until  kindergartners  were  placed  in  charge  of  the  inmates  to 
transform  the  institution  into  a  family,  we  would  also  speedily 
lessen  the  need  for  those  institutions. 

Those  of  you  here  to-day  who  have  little  children  at  home 
will  want  to  know  what  you  can  do  at  your  end  of  the  line,  per- 
haps at  the  same  time  that  you  are  busy  helping  on  the  work 
being  done  for  the  less  fortunate.  What  can  you  do  to  prevent 
that  subtle  disintegrating  element  from  creeping  into  your  own 
households?  What  can  you  do  to  keep  your  boys  and  girls  from 
becoming  such  problems  that  it  requires  a  whole  institutional 
government  to  legislate  and  punish  and  finally  reform;  them? 


58  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

We  have  been  told  that  the  deficiencies  of  motherhood  are  found 
not  only  in  the  submerged  parts  of  the  city.  I  know  this  to  be 
a  fact,  and  I  believe  that  this  Congress  is  the  strongest  proof  that 
earnest,  intelligent  women  want  to  know  not  merely  "  scientific 
methods  of  bringing  up  children  "  (as  some  one  remarked  on 
the  street  to-day),  but  economical  measures.  I  believe  in  the 
kindergarten  because  it  is  economical.  It  saves — yes,  it  saves  in 
dollars  and  cents — because  it  conserves  that  wonder  product 
known  as  human  energy,  through  starting  the  children  right 
in  their  ideals  of  what  constitutes  life  and  the  purpose  of  human- 
ity. It  does  this  through  its  teaching  of  the  value  and  meaning 
of  human  fatherhood  and  motherhood,  brothers  and  sisters,  and 
neighbors.  Its  educational  idea  is  the  greatest  social  economic 
measure  of  the  day.  I  believe  that  the  kindergarten  put  into  the 
public  schools  of  our  country  (when  the  time  is  ripe,  when  you 
and  I  have  helped  to  make  it  ripe)  will,  as  an  institution,  do  for 
society  at  large  what  the  young  child  does  for  every  individual 
of  the  family  into  which  it  comes — that  it  will  serve  as  a  daily 
reminder  to  those  in  power  that  their  highest  duty  is  to  serve 
as  the  pattern  .of  what  these  little  ones  should  become  and  should 
wish  to  become. 

Coming  on  the  train  to  Washington,  there  was  a  party  of 
five  children  with  a  beautiful  mother.  The  smallest  child, 
scarcely  three  years  old,  walked  up  to  us  and  said:  "  See  how 
big  I  am  now.  I  was  not  so  big  once,  but  just  see  how  big  I  am 
now,"  just  as  we  did  when  we  were  children,  just  as  every  child 
who  has  breathed  and  lived  and  grown  has  said.  I  replied, 
"Pretty  soon  you  will  be  bigger,  and  then  what  will  you  be?" 
"  I  am  going  to  be  just  like  my  mamma."  This  earnest  mother 
of  the  child  could  be  quite  happy  in  her  child's  aspiration. 

Another  instance  of  how  children  aspire  to  become  as  their 
elders:  An  unattractive  child  in  the  Chicago  Orphan  Asylum  had 
waited  long  for  some  one  to  come  and  take  him  away,  having 
witnessed  how  this  and  the  other  child  had  been  "  taken  home." 
As  an  explanation,  the  matron  had  said  that  Johnny's  papa  had 
come  to  take  him  home  or  Mamie's  mamma  had  come  to  take 
her  home.  Finally  he  asked,  "  Why  doesn't  my  papa  come  ?  " 
Again  and  again  he  demanded  to  know  why  his  papa  did  not 


WHAT  THE  KINDERGARTEN  MEANS  TO  MOTHERS.        59 

come  to  take  him  home,  growing  more  and  more  impatient.  One 
day  a  gentleman  of  very  fine  appearance  came  into  the  office, 
and  in  the  most  polite  and  courteous  manner  made  inquiry  to  see 
the  baby  girls,  as  he  might  wish  to  adopt  one.  Then  this  little 
boy  walked  up  to  him  and  asserted,  "  You  are  my  papa." 

"  No,  indeed,  I  am  not  your  papa."  But  the  child,  tired 
of  waiting  for  his  turn,  appropriated  the  newcomer,  and  accom- 
panied him  as  he  was  shown  through  the  wards,  holding  him  by 
the  hand.  Later  while  the  gentleman  was  waiting,  seated  in 
the  office,  Joe  climbed  to  his  lap,  fumbled  with  his  watch  chain, 
and  patted  his  cheek;  and  as  a  last  resort  this  fine  gentleman 
asked  whether  it  would  be  possible  for  him  to  make  arrangements 
to  take  the  little  fellow  home  with  him  for  a  brief  vacation. 
This  was  arranged,  and  little  Joe,  with  his  scarred  face,  and  with 
the  complexion  which  had  been  largely  to  blame  for  his  being 
left  behind,  was  taken  away  by  the  strong,  handsome  gentleman. 
After  two  weeks  the  word  came  that  they  could  not  get  along 
without  Joe,  and  wished  to  keep  him,  with  the  added  comment 
that  there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that  Joe  would  make  his 
way  in  the  world. 

That  craving,  that  demand  for  a  human  ideal,  is  the  salva- 
tion of  little  children;  that  demand  and  the  fidelity  to  that 
craving  for  an  ideal  within  human  reach,  within  sight,  within 
touch,  and  that  can  be  handled  and  loved,  is  what  helps  chil- 
dren to  grow  up  and  out  into  beautiful  lives  in  spite  of  the  im- 
mediate shortcomings  of  father  or  mother,  or  possibly  the  ab- 
sence of  either.  One  of  the  most  sacred  duties  of  the  kinder- 
garten is  to  cherish  and  honor  every  trace  of  this  craving  for 
the  ideal  on  the  part  of  the  child;  to  send  that  child  home  to 
honor  fatherhood  and  motherhood,  no  matter  what  the  father 
and  mother  may  be.  It  is  sometimes  our  most  difficult  work, 
and  yet  it  is  the  only  chance  of  sustaining  respect  for  the  human 
life  and  preserving  to  the  child  the  power  to  aspire. 

Not  long  ago  I  was  in  a  street  car  in  which  there  was  a  beau- 
tiful child  kneeling  on  the  seat,  looking  out  of  the  window,  giv- 
ing a  full  side  view  of  her  animated,  beautiful  face  to  the  people 
in  the  car.  Among  the  other  passengers  was  a  young  man  who 
is  an  illustrator  for  one  of  our  daily  newspapers.  He  was  sketch- 


60  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ing  the  profile  of  a  prominent  politician  who  sat  across  the  aisle, 
and  was  very  much  engrossed  in  his  work.  Knowing  him,  I 
asked:  "Why  don't  you  sketch  that  child?  It  is  not  every  day 
that  you  can  have  a  child  pose  for  you  in  that  beautiful,  uncon- 
scious way,  and  you  can  find  a  politician  on  any  street  corner." 
The  young  man  drawled  in  a  worldly  way  (and  I  would  not  have 
had  his  mother  hear  him  say  it) :  "  Children  are  such  strange 
creatures.  I  never  know  just  what  to  make  of  them,  and  so  J 
keep  my  distance."  He  was  a  man  possibly  twenty-five  years 
of  age.  A  gray-haired  man,  who  had  lived  long  enough  to  know 
some  things,  took  up  the  conversation  at  this  point,  and  in- 
quired, "  How  long,  my  dear  young  friend,  is  it  since  you  were 
a  child?" 

The  tendency  to  grow  away  from  all  that  is  free  and  spon- 
taneous and  childlike  is  certainly  not  to  be  encouraged,  and  is 
only  too  often  a  result  of  an  indifference  on  the  part  of  parents 
as  to  the  ideals  of  their  children.  The  mother  or  father  who 
patronizes  the  child  is  not  the  kindergarten  kind  of  mother  or 
father.  The  business  man  who  merely  tolerates  his  children 
is  not  our  ideal  of  what  a  father  should  be,  and  brothers  and  sis- 
ters who  scorn  the  companionship  of  younger  ones  are  quite  out 
of  warp.  If  the  kindergarten  philosophy  restores  the  adult  world 
to  the  right  attitude  toward  little  children,  and  reminds  those 
who  have  no  little  ones  of  their  rightful  claims,  it  will  have 
done  a  great  social  service.  If  the  presence  of  the  kindergarten 
in  our  system  of  public  education  serves  as  a  child-nature  re- 
minder to  the  great  teaching  force  of  this  country  (which  num- 
bers many  times  that  of  our  standing  army),  it  will  have  done 
a  great  educational  service.  If,  by  having  a  corner  of  its  own 
in  every  public  school  building,  the  kindergarten  preserves  to 
the  thousands  of  growing  boys  and  girls,  as  they  pass  from  grade 
to  grade,  that  perennial  sweetness  and  spontaneity  which  is  the 
glory  .of  every  human  life,  it  will  have  done  a  great  ethical 
service  for  all  time  to  come. 

The  other  day  a  little  boy  asked,  "  Why  don't  people  in  our 
days  talk  the  way  they  did  in  the  Homer  days?"  He  had  been 
told  stories  in  which  the  gods  and  goddesses  appeared  among 
men,  and  spoke  in  flowing,  poetical,  metaphorical  style,  and  he 


PARENTAL  REVERENCE  IN  THE  HEBREW  HOME.   61 

liked  it.  It  suited  his  ideal  of  grown  folks.  You  may  remem- 
ber, away  back  in  the  beginning  of  your  own  time,  how  you 
looked  up  to  grown  people,  and  ascribed  to  them  all  the  qualities 
of  kings  and  queens  and  those  other  rare  people  who  live  in  the 
child's  Olympus — his  imagination?  These  qualities  the  children 
literally  force  upon  us  grown  people.  The  kindergartner  believes 
that  their  visions  of  adult  perfection  may  be  realized.  If  chil- 
dren want  us  as  gods  and  goddesses,  it  is  our  privilege  to  make 
it  the  business  of  our  life  to  become  such.  Until  the  individual 
family  sustains  that  dignity  and  majesty  of  human  life  within 
its  own  circle,  no  reforms  of  institutional  life,  political  or  ethical, 
can  replace  in  the  hearts  of  the  growing  children  those  ideals  and 
aspirations  which  their  souls  will  always  crave. 


PARENTAL  REVERENCE   AS  TAUGHT  IN  THE 
HEBREW  HOME. 

BY  MRS.  REBEKAH  KOHUT, 

New  York  City. 

PROF.  LAZARUS,  of  Berlin,  in  his  first  essay  on  the  Psychology 
of  Nations,  has  referred  to  the  typic-symbolical  fact  that  with 
all  civilized  nations  their  founders  came  near  losing  their  lives 
during  childhood.  They  were  saved — among  the  gentle  Greeks, 
Zeus  by  a  goat;  among  the  rude  Eomans,  Romulus  by  a  she 
wolf;  and  Moses  by  Jochebed,  his  own  mother.  This  last  fact, 
that  the  founder  of  the  Jewish  nation  was  saved  by  his  own 
mother,  suggests,  it  seems  to  me,  in  the  strongest  manner  the 
family  devotion  which  has  distinguished  the  Jewish  race  from 
so  many  nations  since  the  earliest  times. 

To  the  prophetess  Deborah  was  granted  the  title  "Mother 
in  Israel,"  because  of  her  valiant  deed  for  Israel's  welfare,  and, 
of  course,  this  was  supposed  to  be  the  highest  title  that  could  be 
given  her. 


62  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

The  Hebrew  words  meaning  house  and  mother  are  coexten- 
sive, the  mother  and  the  house  being  one.  Indeed,  all  through 
the  Bible,  from  the  pictures  of  the  mothers  Sara  and  Rebekah 
and  the  rest,  we  can  glean  how  much  woman's  word  was  re- 
spected, and  how  important  a  position  she  held  in  the  home. 
To  be  a  mother  was  the  crown  of  the  Jewish  wife.  Bible  and 
Talmud  say,  "  The  house  is  the  real  temple  of  woman,  the  edu- 
cation of  children  her  divine  service,  and  the  family  her  con- 
gregation." Solomon  sang  of  the  ideal  Jewish  mother  in  his 
Proverbs,  and  if  the  most  beautiful  picture  in  the  world  is  that 
of  the  Virgin  and  Child,  is  it  not  at  the  same  time  the  picture 
of  the  Jewish  mother? 

The  Bible  makes  man's  parents  equally  deserving  with  the 
Most  High  of  his  honor  and  reverence.  "  Honor  thy  father 
and  thy  mother  "  is  one  of  the  precepts  of  the  Decalogue;  and  it 
is  also  written,  "  Fear  thy  mother  and  thy  father."  These  are 
divine  inculcations,  while  the  penalty  for  the  blasphemous  child 
who  sins  against  his  earthly  parents  or  the  great  Father  of  the 
universe  is  the  same,  for  it  is  written  in  the  same  spirit,  "  Who 
curses  his  father  and  mother  shall  be  put  to  death,"  as  it  is  said. 
"And  every  man  who  blasphemes  God  shall  carry  his  death." 

"  Three  friends,"  said  the  rabbis,  "  has  man — God,  his  father, 
and  his  mother."  "  He  who  honors  his  parents,"  says  God, 
"  honors  me,  even  as  though  I  lived  among  them;  "  and  it  is  ex- 
plained by  the  rabbis  that  the  Fifth  Commandment  is  placed  in 
the  Decalogue  between  the  other  nine  because  respect  for  par- 
ents binds  together  the  first  four,  our  duty  toward  God,  and  the 
last  five,  our  duty  toward  our  fellow-men.  It  is,  of  course,  a 
difficult  matter  to  outline  distinctly  now  the  relations  which 
then  existed  between  Jewish  parents  and  their  children,  for  here 
we  are  dealing  with  an  impalpable  sentiment,  which  but  imper- 
fectly materialized  itself  in  quaint  and  ennobling  customs.  The 
full  pathos  of  the  love  which  linked  a  Jewish  father  to  his  son 
can  not  be  set  down  in  words.  It  is  natural  that  the  Jewish 
law  books  fail  us  here.  Judaism,  it  has  been  said,  is  a  religion 
of  laws.  I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  duties  of  children  to  parents 
are  very  imperfectly  codified,  though  there  are  enough  still  to 
give  us  a  broad  view  of  those  relations;  but  the  Jewish  heart 


PARENTAL  REVERENCE  IN  THE  HEBREW  HOME.   63 

was  free  to  follow  its  emotions.  To  their  obedience  to  the  Ten 
Commandments  is  due  primarily  the  survival  of  the  Jews.  For 
more  than  two  thousand  years  they  have  been  playing  the  part  of 
scapegoat  in  the  drama  of  the  nations,  and  have  been  driven 
from  land  to  land.  To  what,  then,  is  due  their  continuing  ex- 
istence? It  is  to  their  religion.  Greece  and  Rome,  with  their 
splendid  civilization  and  legislation,  have  vanished.  Judea, 
inferior  in  the  arts  both  of  war  and  peace,  still  exists,  a  witness 
to  the  truth  of  the  idea  that  there  is  but  one  God,  Father  of 
all,  and  holding  in  his  hand  the  destinies  of  all. 

He  loves  the  good  and  hates  the  bad.  This  is  and  has  been 
the  keynote  of  the  Jewish  religion.  But  this  religion  was  never 
restricted  to  holidays  and  Sabbaths,  and  to  fulfillments  in  the 
synagogue  alone,  but  almost  every  daily  action  of  man  or 
woman  in  the  household  and  out  of  it  was  accompanied  by  the 
performance  of  some  religious  rite.  A  people  that  believes  that 
religion  is  not  for  any  distinct  time  or  place,  but  that  it  must 
enter  into  every  phase  of  life,  is  virile;  and  when  we  remember 
that  in  the  Jewish  home  the  father  was  to  the  child  the  repre- 
sentative of  God,  the  Father  in  heaven,  it  is  easily  conceived  that 
the  practice  of  religion  by  the  child's  father  was  of  the  highest 
value  in  the  conduct  of  his  own  daily  life. 

The  Bible  places  the  duty  of  honoring  parents  in  a  special 
category,  suggesting  longevity  as  a  reward  for  the  observance  of 
this  obligation,  but  specifying  no  penalty  for  its  neglect. 

The  Jewish  prayer  book  includes  the  honoring  of  parents 
among  those  things  the  fruits  of  which  a  man  enjoys  in  this 
•world,  while  the  principle  remains  with  him  for  the  world  to 
come.  Even  the  babbling  child  was  taught  to  utter  prayers  of 
thanks  to  God  on  rising,  and  to  invoke  his  divine  grace  for  the 
coming  day;  after  each  meal  prayers  of  thanks  were  said;  and 
before  retiring  the  last  conscious  act  was  the  saying  of  a  prayer. 
And  in  these  several  prayers  to  the  Father  in  heaven  there  was 
always  included  an  invocation  of  divine  blessing  for  the  parents 
on  earth.  Indeed,  it  was  by  this  constant  reminder  of  the  re- 
ligious importance  of  honoring  father  and  mother  that  it  became, 
as  it  were,  the  nature  of  the  child. 

Innumerable  passages  might,  of  course,  be  quoted  from  the 


64:  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Old  Testament  to  show  how  much  religious  importance  was 
attached  to  the  honor  shown  father  and  mother,  viz. :  "  Every 
one  shall  fear  his  mother  and  his  father  "  (Lev.  xix,  3);  "  Cursed 
be  he  who  despiseth  his  father  and  his  mother,  and  the  whole 
people  say  Amen  "  (Deut.  xxvii,  16). 

The  Temple  was  destroyed;  the  Jews  became  a  scattered 
nation;  little  of  earthly  goods  did  the  Jew  carry  with  him  to 
his  exile.  But  he  had  possessions  of  which  no  tyrants  could  rob 
him — they  were  his  Bible,  his  law,  and  his  traditions;  and 
wherever  he  pitched  his  tent,  driven  as  he  was  from  land  to  land, 
his  home  became  a  sanctuary  unto  the  Lord,  a  bulwark  of  social 
and  moral  strength,  a  headlight  of  home  purity  and  equality 
amid  the  darkness  of  the  surrounding  nations,  by  reason  of  the 
religious  atmosphere  that  pervaded  it.  Soon  the  Ghetto  walls 
arose,  and  more  than  ever,  from  religious  motives,  was  the  Jew's 
home  to  become  his  world.  Love,  of  necessity,  grew  too  deep 
to  need  legal  encouragements  or  restraints.  The  same  courtesies 
of  etiquette  which  were  observed  between  parents  and  children 
in  England  only  a  generation  or  two  ago  prevailed  in  Jewish  life 
for  centuries,  when  life  had  become  a  real  burden  to  the  Jew, 
and  persecution's  rage  was  the  only  kind  of  tolerance  he  knew. 

A  Jewish  son  always  stood  in  his  father's  presence.  The 
father's  seat  was  never  occupied  by  any  one  else.  In  the  syna- 
gogue, when  the  father  was  called  to  read  the  law,  the  son  rever- 
ently rose  from  his  seat  and  remained  standing  during  the  read- 
ing. On  the  eve  of  the  great  Day  of  Atonement  the  children 
were  summoned  to  appear  penitently  in  the  father's  presence, 
to  invoke  the  parent's  forgiveness  for  the  sins  of  the  year,  even 
before  asking  forgiveness  from  God.  But  most  valuable  in  the 
complete  picture  of  home  life  in  the  Middle  Ages  is  the  Sabbath 
eve  celebration.  How  impressive  when  the  father,  returning 
from  divine  service,  folds  his  hands  vipon  the  bowed  heads  of 
his  children,  giving  them  his  blessing  in  God's  name,  thus  im- 
buing the  child  with  filial  love  and  veneration,  and  himself  with 
moral  responsibility  toward  his  offspring.  A  number  of  writers, 
mostly  German,  have  caught  this  undercurrent  of  beauty  in  the 
lives  of  a  hampered  people,  who  quietly  passed  their  days  in  the 
shadow  of  the  Ghetto  wall.  But  most  touching  of  all  is  that 


PARENTAL  EEVERENCE  IN  THE  HEBREW  HOME.   65 

particularly  beautiful  picture  of  the  Ghetto  Jew  by  Heinrich 
Heine.  Here  you  see  him  all  the  week  with  the  pack  upon  his 
back,  almost  doubled  with  the  very  burden  of  life;  but  on  the 
Sabbath  eve  he  is  suddenly  transformed  into  a  prince  of  men 
as  he  returns  from  the  synagogue  with  the  divine  benediction 
upon  his  now  almost  spiritual  countenance,  hastening  to  his 
humble  home  (but  which  is  at  the  same  time  his  castle),  his  wife 
and  children  running  eagerly  to  greet  him;  the  snowy  cloth, 
the  Sabbath  lights,  the  poor  man  too  (for  it  was  Jewish  law  to 
provide  for  the  poor);  and  as  he  stretches  out  his  hands  to  bless, 
with  the  blessing  that  Jacob  gave  to  his  children,  he  is  no  longer 
a  poor  Jewish  peddler,  but  a  high  priest,  and  his  wife  a  veritable 
high  priestess.  What  mattered  to  him  the  stones  and  cuffs  of  the 
week?  It  was  the  Sabbath,  and  he  was  lost  in  its  glory  and 
beauty.  Can  you  not  see  the  value  of  such  scenes  as  an  influ- 
ence for  good  in  a  child's  respect  for  parents?  Or  shall  we  go 
further  and  relate  how,  even  to  this  day,  no  Jewish  child  fails  to 
light  the  taper  on  the  anniversary  of  the  death  of  his  or  her 
parents,  carrying  the  respect  for  father  and  mother  even  beyond 
the  grave?  And  the  rabbis  taught  this,  that  the  child  who  for- 
gets to  respect  the  wishes  of  his  parents  by  doing  those  things 
which  are  prescribed,  and  not  keeping  those  commandments 
which  father  and  mother  taught  him  to  keep,  whose  relation 
to  his  children  does  not  reflect  the  religious  and  moral  training 
he  received  at  home,  creates  a  chasm  in  his  life  which  he  can 
not  bridge,  even  by  lighting  the  anniversary  lights. 

Eabbi  Ulah,  one  of  the  Talmud  rabbis,  was  once  asked,  "  How 
extended  should  be  the  honor  due  to  parents?"  He  replied: 
"Listen,  and  I  will  tell  you.  There  was  a  diamond  merchant, 
and  the  sages  desired  to  purchase  from  him  a  jewel  for  the  ephod 
of  the  high  priest.  When  they  reached  his  house  they  found 
that  the  key  of  the  safe  in  which  the  diamond  was  kept  was  in 
the  possession  of  Damalis's  father,  who  was  sleeping.  The  son 
absolutely  refused  to  awaken  his  father  to  obtain  the  key,  even 
when  the  sages  in  their  impatience  offered  him  a  much  larger 
sum  for  the  jewel  than  he  had  demanded.  And,  further,  when 
his  father  awoke,  and  he  delivered  the  diamond  to  the  purchasers, 
and  they  gave  him  the  larger  sum  they  had  named,  he  took 


66  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

from  it  his  first  price,  returning  the  balance  with  the  words, 
*  I  will  not  profit  by  the  honor  which  I  have  for  my  father.' ': 
The  Talmud  abounds  in  such  stories,  iterating  again  and  again 
the  importance  attached  to  the  proper  relations  between  parents 
and  children.  This,  then,  was  the  compensation  the  Jew  re- 
ceived for  the  persecution  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Walled  in  from 
the  outside  world,  all  he  had  was  his  honor  and  the  recollection 
of  a  glorious  past,  and  he  knew  it,  and  he  preserved  his  tradi- 
tions to  the  highest  degree  in  his  home  life.  Judea's  Temple 
fell,  and  the  biblical  Jews  became  a  scattered  people.  The  walls 
of  the  Ghetto  fell,  and  the  Jew  could  walk  out  among  the  people 
of  the  world,  rich  with  the  knowledge  and  traditions  of  a  nar- 
rowed life.  Since  Mendelssohn's  time  many  of  the  barriers  which 
separated  Jew  and  Gentile  have  been  gradually  removed,  until 
now  we  stand  alongside  of  each  other,  working  hand  in  hand 
in  all  that  is  for  the  good  and  for  the  amelioration  and  emanci- 
pation of  mankind.  Even  a  Jewish  mother  has  been  asked  to 
bring  her  simple  message  to  the  mothers  of  other  denominations, 
hopeful  that  perhaps  in  some  home  the  good  old  spirit  of  paren- 
tal reverence  will  take  root  and  grow. 

Simultaneously  with  the  granting  of  civil  and  religious  rights 
the  Jewish  mind,  trained  for  centuries  almost  exclusively  in  the 
study  of  the  Bible  and  Talmud,  eagerly  sought  other  avenues. 
The  horizon  widened,  and  religious  ceremonies  no  longer  played 
so  important  a  part  in  their  lives,  as,  indeed,  it  has  ceased  to 
play  in  the  lives  of  many  people  who  are  not  Jews.  But  the 
strong  family  ties,  the  honor  of  father  and  mother,  parental 
affection,  so  typical  of  the  Jewish  parents,  and  which  grew  and 
were  fostered  in  the  true  religious  sense,  because  God  com- 
manded that  it  should  be  so  when  he  gave  the  law  to  Moses,  and 
which  were  the  Jews'  compensation  for  the  Ghetto  life — these 
still  live,  and  have  become  proverbial  among  the  nations  of  the 
earth. 

Should  you  go  into  any  American-Jewish  home,  or  into  the 
Jewish  home  of  any  other  land  (and  in  what  land  is  there  not 
a  Jew?),  you  will,  on  the  whole,  find  that  home  the  same  as  the 
other  homes  of  that  country.  The  Jew  is  a  citizen  of  that  part 
of  the  world  in  which  he  lives.  But  "  Mother  of  Israel "  is  still 


THE  AFRO-AMERICAN  MOTHER.  67 

a  title  of  honor,  and  "  Father  "  is  still  a  word  of  holiest  meaning. 
Parental  reverence  still  exists,  for  the  Jew  is  still,  to  a  large  ex- 
tent, a  creature  of  traditions. 

There  can  be  no  more  important  theme  for  mothers  to  dis- 
cuss. It  is  a  pathetic  picture  we  ofttimes  see,  this  relegating  of 
parents  by  children  to  a  secondary  place  in  the  home.  It  is  a 
picture  which  no  one  can  see  without  a  sense  of  shame,  a  sense 
of  pain. 

Teach  your  children  while  they  are  young  the  way  in  which 
they  should  go,  and  in  your  old  age  they  will  not  depart  from 
the  path.  Begin  with  the  Decalogue,  as  the  wise  old  Hebrews 
did,  and  every  day  make  your  children  realize  that  father  and 
mother  are  Heaven's  representatives  on  earth,  and  that  to  be 
disrespectful  to  them  is  a  sin  against  God,  the  Father  in  heaven. 


THE  AFRO-AMEKICAK  MOTHER. 

BY  MRS.  FRANCES  ELLEN  WATKINS  HARPER, 

Philadelphia,  Penn. 

IT  is  now  more  than  thirty  years  since  a  newly  emancipated 
people  stood  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  era,  facing  an  uncertain 
future;  a  legally  unmarried  race  to  be  taught  the  sacredness  of 
the  marriage  relation;  an  ignorant  race  to  be  taught  to  read 
the  Book  of  the  Christian's  law,  and  to  learn  to  comprehend  the 
claims  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ  of  Calvary;  a  homeless  race  to  be 
gathered  into  homes  of  peaceful  security,  and  instructed  how  to 
plant  their  strongest  batteries  against  the  sins  that  degrade  and 
the  vices  that  demoralize;  a  race  unversed  in  the  science  of 
government,  and  unskilled  in  the  just  administration  of  law, 
to  be  translated  from  the  old  oligarchy  of  slavery  into  the  new 
commonwealth  of  freedom.  To  the  men  of  this  race  came  the 
right  to  exchange  the  fetters  on  their  wrist  for  the  ballots  in 
their  right  hands — ballots  which,  if  not  vitiated  by  fraud  or 
restrained  by  violence,  would  count  just  as  much  as  those  of  the 


08  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

most  talented  and  influential  men  in  the  land.  While  politicians 
may  stumble  on  the  barren  mountains  of  fretful  controversy, 
and  while  men  who  lack  faith  in  God  and  the  invisible  forces 
which  make  for  righteousness  may  shrink  from  the  unsolved 
problems  of  the  hour,  into  the  hands  of  Christian  women  comes 
the  opportunity  of  serving  the  ever-blessed  Christ  by  minister- 
ing to  his  little  ones,  and  striving  to  teach  neglected  and  igno- 
rant mothers  how  to  make  their  homes  the  brightest  spots  on 
earth  and  the  fairest  types  of  heaven. 

The  school  may  instruct  and  the  Church  may  teach,  but  the 
home  is  older  than  the  Church,  antedates  the  school,  and  is  the 
place  in  which  to  train  children  for  useful  citizenship  on  earth 
and  a  hope  -  of  holy  companionship  in  heaven.  Every  mother 
should  endeavor  to  be  a  true  artist.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  that 
every  woman  should  be  a  painter,  sculptor,  musician,  poet,  or 
writer,  but  that  the  mother  should  be  an  artist  who  can  write 
on  the  tablet  of  childish  innocence  thoughts  which  she  will  not 
blush  to  see  read  in  the  light  of  eternity,  and  placed  amid  the 
archives  of  heaven — thoughts  which  the  young  may  learn  to 
bind  as  amulets  around  their  hearts  and  throw  as  bulwarks  around 
their  lives,  so  that  in  the  hour  of  temptation  and  trial  the  voices 
from  home  may  linger  in  their  paths  as  angels  of  guidance 
around  their  steps. 

As  marriage  is  the  maker  of  homes,  its  duties  and  responsi- 
bilities should  be  understood  before  it  is  entered  upon.  A  mis- 
take made  here  may  run  through  every  avenue  of  our  lives,  and 
cast  a  shadow  over  all  our  coming  years.  In  education  we  may 
become  well  versed  in  ancient  lore  and  modern  learning,  able 
to  trace  the  paths  of  worlds  that  roll  in  light  and  power  on  high, 
and  tell  when  comets  shall  cast  their  trails  over  our  evening 
skies;  we  may  learn  to  understand  the  laws  of  stratification  well 
enough  to  judge  where  lies  the  vein  of  silver  or  where  Nature 
hides  her  virgin  gold;  we  may  be  able  to  tell  the  story  of  de- 
parted nations  and  conquering  chieftains  who  have  added  pages 
of  blood  and  tears  to  the  world's  history;  but  our  education  is 
deficient  if  we  are  ignorant  of  how  to  guide  the  little  lives  in- 
trusted to  our  care,  and  if  we  can  not  see  in  the  undeveloped 
possibilities  of  our  children  gold  more  fine  than  the  pavements 


THE  AFRO-AMERICAN  MOTHER.  69 

of  heaven  and  gems  more  precious  than  the  foundations  of  the 
Holy  City. 

When  a  woman  marries  she  helps  to  lay  the  foundation  of  a 
new  home,  and  she  should  be  careful  in  choosing  the  building 
mate.  If  it  would  be  folly  for  a  merchant  to  trust  an  argosy 
laden  with  the  richest  treasures  at  midnight  on  a  moonless  sea 
without  a  rudder,  a  compass,  or  a  guide,  is  it  not  worse  than  mad- 
ness for  a  woman  to  trust  her  future  welfare  and  the  happiness 
of  her  home  in  the  unsteady  hands  of  a  man  who  by  intemper- 
ance has  lost  his  self-control? 

We  need  an  enlightened  parenthood.  The  moment  the 
crown  of  motherhood  falls  on  the  brow  of  a  young  woman  God 
gives  to  her  a  new  interest  in  the  welfare  of  the  home  and  the 
well-being  of  society.  Society  acquires  an  added  interest  in  the 
welfare  of  each  new  member  that  enters  it.  Whether  his  advent 
shall  prove  a  blessing  or  a  bane,  an  addition  to  the  dangerous 
and  perishing  classes,  or  a  moral  and  spiritual  force,  making  life 
brighter  and  better,  depends  upon  the  home  and  mother  influ- 
ence. Not  only  for  the  sake  of  our  own  people,  but  for  the  sake 
of  the  nation,  there  is  need  of  an  enlightened  parentage. 

You  of  the  Caucasian  race  were  born  to  an  inheritance  of 
privileges;  behind  you  are  ages  of  civilization,  education,  and 
organized  Christianity;  behind  us  are  ages  of  ignorance,  poverty, 
and  slavery;  and  now  into  your  hands,  oh,  my  favored  sisters, 
God  has  placed  one  of  the  grandest  opportunities  that  ever  fell 
into  the  hands  of  a  nation  or  a  people.  Has  not  the  colored 
mother  a  claim  not  simply  upon  your  compassion,  but  also  upon 
your  sense  of  justice?  If  the  great  apostle  to  the  Gentiles  felt 
that  he  was  a  debtor  to  the  Jew  and  the  Greek,  the  Eoman  and. 
the  barbarian,  have  you  no  debt  to  be  paid  to  the  colored  mother- 
hood of  the  country?  If  St.  Paul  felt  that  the  barbarian  had 
made  him  a  debtor  by  building  the  roads  on  which  the  tidings 
of  the  Gospel  he  loved  could  run  with  nimble  feet,  that  the 
Jews  had  a  hold  upon  his  gratitude  for  preserving  the  idea  of 
the  unity  of  God — the  great,  the  grand,  and  central  thought  of 
the  universe — and  the  Greek  for  the  development  of  a  literature 
that  added  to  his  resources  of  expression,  has  not  the  negro 
also  a  claim  upon  a  nation  in  which  he  helped  build  up  the 


70  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

great  cotton  power,  rendering  the  toil  of  his  hands  to  the 
mills? 

I  do  not  ask  any  special  favor  for  the  colored  mother.  Only 
let  us  be  tried  by  the  same  rules  and  judged  by  the  same  stand- 
ards as  are  other  people.  I  am  not  asking  any  material  favors 
from  a  thread  to  a  shoe  latchet.  But  I  do  ask  you  to  give  what 
we  can  not  touch  with  our  hands,  the  ideal  things  that  can  not 
be  measured  with  a  line  nor  weighed  in  a  balance,  just  those 
things  which  gold  is  too  poor  to  buy — kind  words  and  holy 
wishes,  and  the  clemency  of  hearts  inspired  by  love  to  God  and 
man.  I  ask  that  you  will  do  what  you  can  to  create  a  public 
opinion  which  will  not  class  the  worthy  and  the  worthless  to- 
gether, nor  say  to  the  most  intelligent  and  virtuous  woman 
applying  for  a  situation,  "  The  color  of  your  skin  must  be  a 
badge  of  exclusion;  no  valor  nor  any  virtue  can  redeem  you, 
nothing  can  wipe  off  the  ban  that  clings  to  you."  Trample,  if 
you  will,  on  our  bodies,  but  do  not  crush  out  self-respect  from 
our  souls.  If  you  want  us  to  act  as  women,  treat  us  as  women. 
If  you  want  us  to  become  good  Christians,  teach  us  concerning 
our  high  origin,  our  relation  to  God,  our  possibilities  of  rising 
so  high  in  the  scale  of  moral  and  spiritual  life  that  from  being 
a  little  lower  than  the  angels  we  may  become  one  with  God, 
even  as  Christ  was  one — one  in  spirit  and  one  in  harmony. 

I  am  not  here  to  laud  the  progress  of  the  colored  woman,  nor 
to  attempt  to  soothe  our  people  by  humming  a  pleasant  lullaby, 
saying  that  we  are  a  race  which  has  made  a  wonderful  progress 
in  the  short  space  of  time  since  our  emancipation.  Never  before 
was  there  a  race  of  enslaved  people  who  lived  in  such  a  wonder- 
ful period  of  history.  The  sun  is  now  our  engraver,  the  swift- 
winged  lightning  our  messenger,  and  steam  our  tireless  beast 
of  burden.  Never  before,  I  think,  in  all  the  history  of  slavery, 
ancient  and  modern,  was  there  an  emancipated  people  upon 
whom  so  much  money  was  bestowed  in  providing  them  with  edu- 
cation. Never,  do  I  think,  was  philanthropy  more  widespread 
nor  charity  more  thoughtful  than  it  has  been  since  the  war. 
Nor  has  all  this  outlay  been  barren  of  results. 

In  1860  the  Commissioner  of  Education  showed  the  number 
of  negroes  enrolled  in  the  schools  as  absolutely  trifling.  In  1870, 


THE  AFRO-AMERICAN  MOTHER.  71 

five  years  after  they  became  free,  the  records  of  the  census  show 
that  only  two  tenths  of  all  the  negroes  over  ten  years  of  age  in 
the  country  could  write.  Ten  years  later  the  proportion  had 
increased  to  three  tenths  of  the  whole  number;  and  in  1890, 
only  a  generation  after  they  were  emancipated,  not  less  than 
forty-three  out  of  every  one  hundred  negroes  of  ten  years  of  age 
and  over  were  able  to  read  and  write.  These  figures  show  a 
remarkably  rapid  progress  in  elementary  education.  In  all  the 
Southern  States,  except  in  North  Carolina,  Alabama,  Louisiana, 
and  Texas,  it  appears  from  statistics  that  the  enrollment  of  negro 
children  has  increased  more  rapidly  than  that  of  the  whites. 

This  is  the  era  of  golden  opportunity  for  American  woman- 
hood. It  is  theirs  to  exert  their  influence  against  the  lawlessness 
in  the  land  which  is  not  merely  racial,  but  a  symptom  of  disease 
in  the  body  politic.  And  now,  in  conclusion,  permit  me  to  en- 
treat you  that  as  numbers  of  the  young  women  of  the  colored 
race  are  around  you  as  servants,  and  come  in  constant  contact 
with  your  children,  that  you  will  hold  it  as  a  sacred  trust  to  instill 
into  their  minds  the  best  principles,  and  hold  up  before  them 
the  highest  ideals  of  integrity  of  character  and  purity  of  life. 
What  is  noblest  and  best  to  teach  your  daughters  is  not  too  noble 
and  good  to  teach  them.  Close  not  the  door  of  opportunity  upon 
any  on  account  of  color  or  race.  In  domestic  service  place  a 
premium  on  industry,  virtue,  and  intelligence.  A  young  girl 
trained  as  a  kindergarten  pupil  might  be  of  great  value  to  a 
young  mother  as  a  useful  assistant  in  the  work  of  child-rearing. 
Between  both  branches  of  the  human  race  in  this  country  there 
is  a  community  of  interests,  and  their  interests  all  lie  in  one 
direction. 


72  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

WEDNESDAY  EVENING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS. 

BY  MRS.  WILBUR  F.  CRAFTS, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

A  YOUNG  wife  chose  for  a  motto  to  place  in  her  private  room 
the  words  of  Jesus  when  he  said,  "  Suffer  little  children  to  come 
unto  me."  She  subsequently  became  the  mother  of  ten  sons 
and  one  daughter.  When  she  went  out  to  drive  her  commodious 
carriage  was  filled  with  her  children  and  with  flowers.  The 
flowers  were  for  other  people's  children.  She  drove  not  only 
through  the  parks  and  finest  streets  for  her  own  pleasure  and 
that  of  her  children,  but  she  also  went  through  sections  of  the 
city  where  the  streets  were  filled  with  poor  children  at  play,  so 
that  she  might  scatter  flowers  among  them.  Through  her  long 
life  her  words  and  deeds  ennobled  motherhood,  and  taught  other 
people  with  whom  she  came  in  contact  that  motherhood  is  wom- 
an's noblest  condition. 

The  world  loves  to  pay  tribute  to  motherhood.  There  are 
some  great  mothers  whose  names  are  honored  of  many  nations, 
but  every  mother  has  a  shrine  in  some  loving  heart.  It  has  long 
been  held  that  mother,  home,  and  heaven  are  the  three  sweetest 
words  in  our  language. 

Among  the  many  tributes  which  the  world  pays  to  mother- 
hood, the  kindergarten  is  perhaps  the  greatest,  not  excepting 
art  and  literature.  It  is  higher  than  painting,  because  life  itself 
is  greater  than  the  representation  of  life.  A  group  of  dimpled 
darlings,  instinct  with  ever-changing  grace  and  mood,  are  far 
more  interesting  than  any  painted  group  could  be,  even  though 
Raphael  be  the  artist.  These  life  pictures  are  day  by  day  being 
produced  in  the  kindergartens  of  our  land,  where  not  alone  the 
graceful  games  and  occupations  form  the  setting  of  the  pictures, 
but  where  soul  development  is  an  element  beyond  a  painter's 
brush  to  depict. 


MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS.  73 

The  kindergarten  is  higher  than  the  poem  because  it  not 
only  develops  lofty  imaginations  and  ideals,  but  it  provides  ways 
and  means  of  carrying  them  out.  There  are  lyrics  and  idyls  and 
pastorals  being  enacted  every  day  in  kindergartens. 

We  lay  the  kindergarten  at  the  feet  of  motherhood  because 
Frederich  Froebel,  its  founder,  tells  us  that  his  system  is  the 
"  science  of  motherhood."  He  went  about  among  peasant  moth- 
ers, observing  the  sweet  plays  which  they  had  instinctively  with 
their  little  ones;  these  he  caught  and  fixed  forever  in  picture 
and  song  and  motto  in  his  so-called  Miitterbuch,  which  a  lead- 
ing kindergarten  author  in  somewhat  mistaken  zeal  calls  "  the 
kindergarten  Bible."  It  is  not  a  Bible  in  any  sense,  but  it  is 
one  of  the  noblest  books  to  guide  in  the  right  development  of 
little  children.  Froebel  is  said  to  have  been  the  possessor  of  a 
well-worn  Bible,  and  he  certainly  would  not  wish  to  be  credited, 
or  rather  discredited,  with  making  one  of  his  own  for  others  to 
study. 

The  genius  of  the  kindergarten  system  is  motherhood,  but 
it  does  not  put  mothers  on  a  pedestal  and  say,  "  Here  are  unerr- 
ing guides ";  instead,  it  seeks  to  educate  mothers  as  well  as 
children,  but  the  fact  remains  that  true  motherhood  is  the  right 
standard  in  education,  and  not  in  elementary  schools  alone.  I 
have  long  felt  that  the  school  should  not  be  an  institution  sepa- 
rate from  the  home  and  peculiar  to  itself,  but  should  rather  be 
the  broadening  out  of  the  home  life.  Just  as  we  now  have 
"  Greater  Chicago  "  and  "  Greater  New  York,"  let  the  school 
be  looked  upon  as  a  part  of  the  greater  family.  Or,  turning  the 
picture  about,  let  us  compare  it  with  Magna  Grecia.  The  penin- 
sula was  not  Greece  alone,  but  the  outlying  islands  and  colonies 
as  well.  Let  these  two  illustrations  serve  to  carry  the  thought 
that  the  home  element  must  be  in  the  school  and  the  school 
element  must  be  in  the  home. 

This  is  the  ideal;  what  is  the  reality?  Almost  universally 
mothers  sigh  with  relief  as  their  children  take  up  their  books 
daily  and  start  off  to  school.  They  have  the  feeling  that  for  a 
few  hours,  at  least,  they  are  "  rid  of  them."  They  know  hardly 
anything  of  the  conditions  by  which  their  children  are  to  be 
surrounded  during  the  five  or  six  hours  of  their  absence  from 


74  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

home.  They  would  hardly  know  the  teacher  of  their  children  if 
they  should  meet  her  on  the  street.  The  teacher,  on  the  other 
hand,  does  not  know  them,  and  the  two  who  should  know  each 
other  best,  because  both  have  the  welfare  of  the  same  children 
at  heart,  are  as  ships  that  pass  in  the  night. 

As  a  schoolgirl  I  was  taught  to  sing  about  the  parents: 

They  visit  their  cows, 
They  visit  their  farms, 
.         But  why  don't  they  visit  their  schools  f 

Even  this  did  not  bring  the  mothers  to  visit  the  school! 

As  a  f9rmer  teacher,  I  must  confess  that  the  unusual  sight 
of  a  mother  coming  toward  the  schoolhouse  always  filled  me 
with  trepidation,  because  I  knew  some  complaint  was  about  to 
be  brought  against  me.  A  friendly  visit  from  a  mother  was  an 
incident  almost  unknown.  I  have  questioned  teachers  of  this 
present  time,  and  those  beyond  the  kindergarten  tell  me  that 
their  experience  is  like  my  own. 

Let  us  discover  if  we  can  why  the  school  and  the  home  are 
so  far  apart.  When  civilization  was  young  and  homes  were 
isolated,  the  children  were  taught  at  home  by  their  parents.  As 
wealth  increased,  social  duties  made  it  necessary  that  tutors 
should  be  employed.  As  the  population  increased,  and  homes 
became  closer  together,  the  idea  grew  apace  that  one  tutor  might 
do  for  all  the  children  in  a  neighborhood,  and  the  schoolhouse 
was  erected  as  a  common  place  of  meeting.  The  teacher 
"  boarded  around,"  and  so  in  a  certain  sense  the  school  was  a 
family  matter.  Under  such  conditions  it  was  hardly  possible  for 
the  school  to  be  a  law  unto  itself. 

As  the  number  of  children  increased,  it  became  necessary  to 
build  larger  schoolhouses  and  more  of  them,  and  the  school 
system  was  established.  It  was  then  that  parents  took  upon 
themselves  the  attitude  of  laisser  faire.  They  Americanized  the 
French  motto,  "  Laisser  faire  et  passer  le  mond  va  de  liu-meme," 
to  read,  "  Let  the  school  alone,  it  revolves  of  itself."  The  re- 
sult has  been  that  our  schools  have  become  almost  devoid  of 
practical  training  or  religious  teaching — something  very  unlike 


MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS.  75 

the  true  home.  Instruction  rather  than  education  seems  to 
have  become  the  aim  of  the  school,  and  our  boys  and  girls, 
particularly  those  who  must  early  set  about  earning  their  daily 
bread,  are  not  prepared  for  the  tasks  before  them.  Their 
acquirements  in  the  school  have  given  them  distaste  for  hand 
labor,  and  therefore  many  pursuits  are  left  untouched  by 
them,  to  be  taken  up  by  those  who  come  as  foreigners  to  our 
shores. 

It  were  better  if  the  home  idea  should  again  prevail,  not  to 
the  extent  of  each  family  having  a  tutor  or  of  the  restoration  of 
the  village  school,  but  let  there  be  a  renaissance  of  home  interest 
and  co-operation  with  the  school.  Let  parents,  particularly 
mothers,  put  in  the  list  of  their  solemn  obligations:  1,  Frequent 
visitation  of  the  schools  attended  by  their  children;  2,  thorough 
acquaintance  with  the  teachers  of  their  children;  3,  co-opera- 
tion with  the  school  plans. 

A  movement  in  the  right  direction  was  a  reception  given  in 
Boston  by  parents  to  the  teachers  of  their  children,  in  order  to 
express  their  appreciation  and  gratitude.  "  Had  those  teachers 
not  received  their  salaries?  "  asked  some  Shylock.  I  would  reply 
that  noblesse  oblige  has  no  money  value;  it  is  above  and  beyond 
it.  Better  than  the  public  reception  was  the  taking  to  one's 
heart  and  hearthstone  the  teacher  of  one's  children.  If  there 
should  be  a  difference  in  culture  and  in  social  standing,  it  can 
best  be  overcome  by  repeated  acts  of  such  kindnesses,  and  the 
reflex  influence  will  be  seen  in  the  more  refined  and  delicate 
handling  of  the  children  in  the  schoolroom.  Before  leaving  this 
part  of  my  subject,  I  can  not  refrain  from  saying  that  as  mother- 
hood has  given  a  science  to  education,  it  would  be  wise  to  con- 
tinue woman  in  its  councils,  and  give  her  places  upon  school 
boards,  as  has  been  done  in  some  of  our  States  and  Territories 
and  in  a  few  of  the  large  cities  of  the  world.  Let  the  mothers 
share  with  the  fathers  in  plans  for  public  education  as  they  share 
in  the  home  training. 

As  a  suggestion  of  what  mothers  can  do  for  the  schools,  let 
me  remind  you  that  the  organized  motherhood  of  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union,  under  the  inspiring  leadership  in 
this  department  of  Mrs.  Mary  H.  Hunt,  has  secured  compulsory 


76  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

scientific  temperance  education  laws  in  forty-one  State  Legis- 
latures and  in  Congress  for  the  Territories,  so  giving  to  sixteen 
millions  of  children  knowledge  of  the  perils  that  lurk  in  alco- 
holics and  narcotics.  If  one  thirtieth  of  the  motherhood  of  the 
churches  can  do  so  much,  what  might  not  be  done  if  all  the 
mothers  could  join  in  the  work  of  improving  the  school?  Could 
we  not  even  bring  back  the  Bible? 

Viewing  the  school  as  a  part  of  the  greater  family,  many 
small  and  irritating  questions  will  disappear  concerning  distinc- 
tions between  the  rich  and  poor.  It  Avill  tend  to  unify  all  cir- 
cles of  life,  and  bring  about  the  true  meaning  of  the  fatherhood 
of  God  and  the  brotherhood  of  man.  The  foundations  for  this 
must  be  laid  in  the  school  if  it  is  ever  realized,  and  they  must 
be  laid  by  the  home  as  the  divinely  appointed  center  of  love  and 
good  will. 

Some  years  ago  I  saw  in  one  of  the  illustrated  weekly  papers 
a  colored  cartoon  which  amused  and  interested  me  much.  There 
was  a  large  punch  bowl  filled  with  little  men  out  of  every  nation 
in  the  world;  there  was  the  Eussian,  the  Chinese,  the  Japanese, 
German,  Frenchman,  Spaniard,  Jew,  Italian,  etc.  Columbia, 
as  the  Goddess  of  Liberty,  stood  beside  the  aforesaid  bowl,  and, 
with  a  long  spoon  in  her  hand,  was  effectually  stirring  them  into 
the  mixture,  all  of  which  signified  the  Americanizing  of  for- 
eigners. I  would  like  to  change  the  picture.  I  do  not  at  all 
believe  in  a  national  punch  bowl,  but  instead  I  will  place  the 
schoolhouse;  around  it  shall  be  a  circle  of  mothers.  The  teacher 
is  the  presiding  genius,  and  the  little  boys  and  girls  of  all 
nations  and  stations  are  the  materials  which  are  being  stirred 
together  to  produce  Americanism.  To  cultivate  true  Ameri- 
canism the  flag  has  been  brought  into  school  life;  the  Bible 
should  be  brought  back  with  it,  because  this  is  a  Christian 
nation. 

And  yet  the  picture  does  not  satisfy  me.  I  will  put  in  its 
place  one  which  I  saw  in  the  Louvre — a  picture  of  Christ  at  the 
wedding  in  Cana  of  Galilee,  seated  at  a  table,  not  with  Galilean 
guests,  but  with  people  of  all  nations  gathered  about  him.  That 
is  what  the  brotherhood  of  man  and  the  fatherhood  of  God 
means — one  in  Christ. 


MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS.  77 

I  live  to  hail  that  season 

By  gifted  minds  foretold, 
When  men  shall  live  by  reason, 

And  not  alone  by  gold. 
When  man  to  man  united, 
And  every  wrong  thing  righted, 
The  whole  world  shall  be  lighted, 

As  Eden  was  of  old. 

As  the  first  division  of  my  subject  has  been  the  relation  of 
the  mother  to  the  secular  school,  the  second  division  shall  be 
the  relation  of  the  mother  to  the  Sunday  school.  I  will  say  in 
the  outset  that  when  the  Church  takes  from  the  home  the  duty 
and  the  privilege  of  religious  instruction  it  is  doing  an  irrepara- 
ble injury.  I  have  seen  in  a  foreign  city  hundreds  of  little  boys, 
averaging  ten  or  eleven  years  of  age,  passing  through  the  streets 
in  a  procession,  attired  in  long,  black  robes,  bare-headed,  and 
shaven  in  such  a  way  as  to  look  bald-headed.  Perhaps  you  have 
heard  of  that  precocious  little  American  boy  who  went  to  the 
barber's  alone  for  the  first  time,  and,  on  being  asked  how  he 
would  have  his  hair  cut,  replied,  "  Just  like  papa's,  with  a  round 
hole  on  the  top."  But  those  little  boys  had  round  holes  on  the 
top,  not  because  they  wanted  them,  but  because  it  was  the  rule 
of  the  school  that  no  boy  should  be  allowed  to  spend  a  single 
night  in  his  home  after  having  been  entered  as  a  pupil.  The 
Church  assumed  the  full  control  of  the  body,  mind,  and  soul 
of  the  child. 

I  feel  the  shuddering  of  every  mother  heart.  That  is  an 
extreme  we  practically  know  nothing  about  in  the  United  States, 
but  we  are  drifting  in  that  direction  by  giving  over  to  the 
Sunday  school  so  largely  as  we  do  the  religious  instruction  of  the 
children,  which  should  be  an  essential  part  of  home  life.  I 
strongly  assert  that  this  usurpation  has  not  been  sought  by  the 
Sunday  school.  It  has  not  even  claimed  co-ordination  with  the 
home  in  this  work,  but  rather  unification.  For  the  past  twenty 
years,  since  the  advent  of  the  uniform  lesson  system,  "  Home 
Readings  "  have  been  arranged  which,  if  faithfully  carried  out 
in  the  home,  would  practically  make  a  unit  of  the  home  and  the 
Sunday  school.  And  more  than  this:  ten  years  ago  the  home 


78  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

department  of  the  Sunday  school  was  organized,  which  gives 
to  every  father  and  mother  the  opportunity  of  belonging  to  the 
Sunday  school  even  though  they  can  not  attend  it.  The  con- 
ditions for  joining  the  home  department  are  simply  the  signing 
of  an  agreement  to  study  the  Sunday-school  lesson  one  half  hour 
a  week  and  report  at  regular  intervals  to  the  superintendent 
directly  or  through  a  home  department  visitor. 

Busy  mothers  will  see  at  once  that  this  plan  will  make  it 
possible  for  them  to  become  identified  with  a  movement  which 
is  of  the  greatest  importance  to  their  homes.  Those  are  the 
wisest  mothers  who  most  closely  connect  themselves  with  what 
their  children  are  doing,  whether  in  pleasures,  pastimes,  or 
studies.  A  mother  should  never  allow  herself  to  get  into  a  posi- 
tion where  her  son  or  daughter  could  say,  "  Oh,  mother  doesn't 
know  anything  about  that!  " 

Those  were  wise  but  unusual  parents  who,  when  their  little 
son  entered  the  primary  department  of  the  Sunday  school,  came 
with  him,  and  remained,  leading  the  music  and  helping  in  the 
teaching,  until  he  was  large  enough  to  be  transferred  to  the 
main  department,  and  then  passed  up  with  him.  That  was  a 
wise  mother  who  took  a  class  in  the  primary  department,  de- 
clining an  advanced  class  of  adults,  for  which  her  attainments 
would  have  fitted  her  to  be  the  teacher,  on  the  ground  that  she 
wished  to  teach  the  kind  of  class  that  would  keep  her  in  closest 
touch  with  her  own  little  daughters.  There  are  many  mothers 
who  could  become  teachers  'in  the  Sunday  school  if  they  would. 
Perhaps  it  has  never  occurred  to  them  that  they  are  needed. 
Let  me  make  an  earnest  plea  by  saying  to  you  that  there  are  at 
least  ten  millions  of  children  in  our  land  who  have  not  yet  been 
brought  into  the  Sunday  school.  They  are  indeed  as  "  sheep 
having  no  shepherd." 

Since  the  Bible  has  been  so  largely  discarded  from  our  public 
schools,  sad  to  tell,  and  since  it  is  more  than  probable  that  the 
vast  number  of  children  ungathered  by  the  Sunday  school  have 
no  religious  instruction  in  their  homes,  because  it  is  the  Christian 
home  that  sends  its  children  to  the  Sunday  school,  it  becomes 
necessary,  in  order  that  our  claim  of  being  a  Christian  nation 
may  be  sustained,  that  these  children  shall  be  reached  by  the 


MOTHERS  AND  THE  SCHOOLS.  79 

Sunday  school.  It  can  not  be  done  with  the  present  teaching 
force.  More  fathers  and  more  mothers  are  needed  for  the  work. 
Plainly  these  have  not  done  their  whole  duty  as  those  who  love 
their  country  when  they  have  provided  religious  instruction  for 
the  children  of  their  own  household.  In  the  light  of  this  great 
need,  should  any  argument  be  required  to  secure  the  co- 
operation of  parents  in  the  religious  instruction  of  their  own 
children? 

The  home  department  of  the  Sunday  school  is  proving  itself 
to  be  one  of  the  most  effective  agencies  yet  devised  to  secure  not 
only  home  co-operation  in  improving  the  Sunday  school,  but 
also  in  extending  it.  Lack  of  time  alone  forbids  me  to  relate 
many  incidents  showing  how  it  has  made  a  bond  between  the 
Sunday  school  and  nonattendants;  how  it  has  increased  Chris- 
tian influences  by  the  enlargement  of  sympathies;  how  it  has 
promoted  Bible  study  and  increased  attendance  upon  the  Sunday 
school  and  the  Church.  It  is  good  for  the  mother  in  her  isolated 
life  on  the  farm;  for  the  mother  kept  at  home  by  infants;  for 
the  mother  too  sick  to  go  out;  for  the  aged  mother,  who  can 
thus  take  a  new  hold  on  life. 

Let  no  mother  adopt  the  laisser-faire  theory  in  relation  to 
either  the  secular  or  the  Sunday  school  on  the  ground  of  having 
no  time.  To  do  so  would  be  equivalent  to  saying,  "  I  am  so  busy 
with  temporalities  I  have  no  time  for  eternities."  Old  Sojourner 
Truth,  nearly  one  hundred  years  old,  gave  as  the  secret  of  her 
long  life  that  she  had  not  worried  out  her  life  thinking  on  small 
subjects.  "  Only  that  is  important  which  is  eternal,"  a  motto 
over  the  central  portal  of  the  Milan  Cathedral,  will  help  us  to 
set  aside  the  small  subjects  and  give  our  time  to  greater  things. 
In  the  words  of  Mary  Lowe  Dickinson: 


We  should  fill  all  the  hours  with  the  sweetest  things, 

If  we  had  but  a  day ; 
We  should  drink  alone  at  the  purest  springs 

On  our  upward  way ; 
We  should  love  with  a  lifetime's  love  in  an  hour, 

If  the  day  were  but  one ; 
If  what  w«  remember  and  what  we  forget 

Went  out  with  the  sun. 


80         NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

We  should  be  from  our  sinful  selves  set  free 

To  work  and  to  pray, 
And  to  be  what  our  Father  would  have  us  to  be, 

If  we  had  but  a  day. 


THE  VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  THE  DEVELOPMENT 
OF  CHARACTER. 

BY  REV.  W.  A.  BARTLETT, 

Lowell,  Mass. 

THE  other  day  I  sat  at  my  piano,  playing  softly,  when  my 
little  girl,  two  years  of  age,  began  to  sing.  Her  natural  and  un- 
taught song  was  the  struggle  to  express  herself,  her  growing  self, 
her  developing  and  beautiful  little  self.  That  is,  in  miniature, 
the  illustration  of  my  theme.  It  demonstrates  our  proposition — 
namely,  that  music  has  value  in  the  development  of  character. 
Shelley  has  said  that 

.  .  .  most  wretched  men 
Are  cradled  into  poetry  by  wrong; 
They  learn  in  suffering  what  they  teach  in  song. 

And  that  is  eminently  true.  But  we  have  come  to  an  age 
which  believes  that  song  may  not  only  be  the  passion  flower  of 
suffering,  but  that  character  may  be  the  blossoming  .of  song. 

It  may  fairly  be  asserted  that  we  have  forever  passed  away 
from  the  barbarism  of  music  taught  to  the  young  woman  as  they 
teach  her  dancing  steps  or  glove  her  hand.  We  have  passed 
from  this  in  the  most  artistic  circles.  It  is  no  longer  an  orna- 
ment; it  is  a  means  of  refinement.  It  is  no  longer  an  accom- 
plishment; it  is  a  pathway  to  God. 

The  meaningless  tinkle  on  the  spinet  of  meaningless  fingers 
evoking  a  meaningless  tune  will  never  again  have  charm.  They 
used  to  think  then  that  music  was  a  frill,  but  they  know  now 
that  it  is  the  garment  itself. 


VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.   81 

And  why  do  we  have  a  right  to  make  such  assertions?  Sim- 
ply because,  as  in  the  discovery  of  all  truth,  we  have  been 
forced  to. 

Testimony  is  pouring  in  from  so  many  directions  that  we 
discover  the  thought  which  has  been  in  God's  mind  from  the 
time  the  morning  stars  sang  together.  Time  was  when  men 
watched  the  display  of  lightning  in  wonder  and  fear.  Now  we 
are  shown  how  to  reach  up  and  capture  it  for  our  work.  That 
was  the  beginning  of  a  new  era. 

So  time  was  when  men  listened  idly  to  music,  and  went  away 
unconscious  that  they  were  trifling  with  a  force.  Now  we  know 
that  melody  is  power.  Some  artist  has  said  that  we  must  come 
back  to  the  Bible  in  all  our  discussions.  We  find  that  it  is 
always  just  ahead  of  our  last  discovery.  When  the  head  of  a 
reform  school  tells  us  that  "  songs  in  the  mouths  of  unruly  boys 
are  more  effective  than  switches  for  their  legs,"  we  are  reminded 
how  the  unruly  horde  of  slave  Israelites  began  their  new  life 
with  a  song  of  triumph.  That  rude  monotone  was  the  intro- 
ductory note  of  an  ever-increasing  Te  Deum,  which  led  them 
through  the  wilderness,  as  Napoleon's  troops  were  lifted  over 
the  Alps  by  a  song  when  all  military  tactics  had  failed.  The 
song,  the  "  new  song  "  was  Israel's  schoolmaster;  it  was  the  indi- 
cator of  his  national  prosperity.  From  the  harsh  shout  it  grew 
and  developed  till  in  the  gorgeous  Temple  of  Solomon  the  great 
choirs  and  orchestras  made  music  in  their  stately  antiphons  that 
was  a  suggestion  of  what  we-  shall  hear  in  the  New  Jerusalem. 
With  Israel's  decline  and  captivity  her  music  lost  its  power. 
They  could. not  sing  the  old  jubilant  anthem  in  a  strange  land; 
so  the  harps  were  hung  on  the  willows,  never  to  be  taken  down 
till  the  return  to  a  neglected  God.  God  had  intended  song  to 
be  sweet  discipline,  a  gentle  preceptor.  That  it  failed  was  no 
fault  of  the  song,  but  the  perverseness  of  the  singers. 

The  superintendents  of  asylums  for  the  insane  have  known 
for  years  that  music  has  a  quieting  effect  on  their  patients,  and 
in  many  retreats  music  is  constantly  used  for  this  beneficent 
purpose. 

A  European  authority  reminds  us  that  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury the  singer  Bellari  put  to  sleep  the  Italian  patron  of  sculp- 


82  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ture,  Prince  Bellargravia,  and  that  in  the  eighteenth  century 
the  singer  Eaaf  sang  away  a  raging  fever  from  the  Princess 
Pignatelli  by  singing  the  Saxon  to  her.  But  we  are  told  by 
another  authority  that  in  the  ten  hundred  and  sixty-third  year 
before  Christ  "  it  came  to  pass,  when  the  evil  spirit  from  God 
was  upon  Saul,  that  David  took  an  harp  and  played  with  his 
hand,  so  Saul  was  refreshed  and  was  well,  and  the  evil  spirit 
departed  from  him."  The  modern  surgeon  may  believe  he  has 
discovered  the  necessity  for  absolute  cleanliness  in  operations 
and  to  prevent  disease,  but  after  all  he  is  but  following  out  the 
requirements  in  the  book  of  Leviticus. 

The  modern  "  music  cure  "  is  credited  to  Dr.  Paul  Riverra, 
a  learned  physician  of  Munich.  He  believes  that  before  the  year 
1897  has  closed  this  method  will  be  firmly  established  in  all 
hospitals  of  the  world.  He  claims  that  by  his  ingenious  device 
the  most  acute  neuralgic  pain  may  be  almost  instantly  relieved. 
But  ages  before  Munich  was  thought  of  the  Psalmist  spoke  of 
the  songs  of  deliverance,  and  said  that  after  the  Lord  had  res- 
cued him  from  the  horrible  pit  he  put  a  new  song  in  his  mouth. 
In  the  long  hours  of  wakefulness  he  remembered  his  song  in  the 
night. 

It  is  stated  that  although  Christ's  greatest  command  was 
concerning  mission  work,  the  Church  did  not  really  awake  to 
the  fact  until  within  the  last  ninety  years.  So  you  may  take 
down  volume  after  volume  of  systematic  theology  and  find  every 
doctrine  in  the  Bible  or  out  of  it  most  exhaustively  and  exhaust- 
ingly  discussed  except  that  of  music.  It  is  strange  when  so  much 
of  Old  Testament  history  floats  on  melody;  when  the  Psalms 
are  songs;  when  the  Apostle  urges  us  to  speak  to  one  another 
in  psalms,  hymns,  and  spiritual  songs;  and  when  we  remember 
how  the  Saviour  gave  utterance  with  the  disciples  to  the  Hebrew 
melody  at  a  time  when  words  failed  them  all  and  each  heart 
was  big  with  tears. 

I  remember  hearing  the  editor  of  a  religious  newspaper  say 
that  he  did  not  give  much  attention  to  music  in  his  columns 
because  he  was  not  musical  himself,  and  did  not  care  for  it.  For 
a  newspaper  man  the  remark  was  as  sensible  as  for  a  hardware 
dealer  to  refuse  to  keep  nails  because  he  did  not  enjoy  driving 


VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.   83 

them  himself.  This  brother  has  passed  on,  we  may  hope,  to 
heaven.  It  is  to  be  supposed  that  he  is  now  taking  a  special 
course  in  heavenly  harmony.  If  the  description  given  us  of 
heaven  be  correct,  song  will  be  a  large  part  of  the  divine  activity, 
and  he  needs  a  probation  after  death. 

If  I  understand  the  purpose  of  this  Congress,  it  is  to  be  for 
the  practical  help  of  every  mother.  Even  if  I  were  able  to  give 
you  a  learned  treatise  on  the  subject  of  music,  it  would  have 
no  value  to  you  and  those  who  will  share  with  you  the  benefits  of 
this  grand  idea  unless  it  touched  directly  upon  the  great  prob- 
lems in  a  mother's  life.  In  what  I  have  already  said  it  has  been 
shown  that  music  is  now  regarded  by  medical  men  as  a  source 
of  relief,  if  not  of  healing.  I  have  also  hinted  at  the  expert 
testimony  of  disciplinarians  as  to  the  softening  or  restraining 
value  of  music  in  the  treatment  of  unruly  boys.  One  of  the  most 
remarkable  sights  I  ever  saw  was  in  a  mission  school,  where  the 
boys  were  hardened  and  intractable.  For  weeks  it  had  been  im- 
possible to  repeat  the  Lord's  Prayer  because  of  the  rowdyism 
and  catcalls.  Night  after  night,  after  all  gentler  means  had 
been  tried,  from  ten  to  fifteen  boys  were  ejected  from  the  room. 
One  evening  a  male  quartette  came  down  and  sung  a  number 
of  college  songs  and  religious  selections.  From  the  moment  the 
songs  were  heard  the  order  was  perfect;  indeed,  the  stillness 
was  almost  uncanny  after  what  we  had  been  through.  We  could 
do  anything  with  those  boys  until  they  found  there  was  to  be 
no  more  singing,  when  they  threw  off  the  spell,  and  read  the 
riot  act  to  us  again.  But  one  thing  was  sure:  we  had  seen  those 
boys  as  gentle  as  lambs.  N~o  one  could  ever  assert  that  there 
had  not  been  a  time  when  they  could  be  touched.  For  we  had 
looked  down  into  souls  at  that  hour,  and  had  discovered  that, 
however  dim  it  was,  there  was  still  uneffaced  a  little  of  the  image 
of  God.  Who  can  say  that  in  that  moment  there  was  not  a 
real  lifting  and  development  of  those  low  lives? 

Dr.  Riverra,  of  Munich,  states  that  in  the  experiments  to  re- 
lieve pain  by  music  no  music  is  so  effective  as  that  of  Wagner. 
His  music  has  been  found  particularly  effective  in  nervous  dis- 
orders. The  doctor  attributes  this  to  the  descriptive  character 
of  Wagner's  music.  "  For  example,"  he  says,  "  you  see  a  milk- 


gj.  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

maid  leave  the  house  and  go  to  the  barn  with  her  pail  in  her 
hand.  You  hear  the  first  tinkle  of  the  drops  in  the  pail,  with 
the  maid  crooning  her  song  as  she  fills  her  pail.  One  by  one 
the  cows  are  mooing  for  their  turn,  and  at  last,  when  all  the 
cows  are  milked,  you  see  the  maid  carrying  her  burden  to  the 
dairy.  Now  the  story  will  first  be  told  the  patients  in  mere 
words,  after  which  they  will  hear  it  expressed  in  music,  the  effect 
of  which  will  be  to  relieve  them  from  pain,  and  so  make  them 
well,  all  being  accomplished,  as  you  see,  through  the  spell  of 
music." 

This  is  of  special  interest  when  we  remember  Wagner's  own 
ideas. 

I  think  musicians  will  agree  with  me  when  I  say  that  no 
composer  except  Beethoven  has  made  such  a  deep  impression  on 
the  musical  world  as  Wagner.  The  man  we  railed  at  a  few  years 
ago  we  now  crown  king.  Why  are  we  moved  by  his  music? 
Because  he  was  moved  when  he  wrote-  it.  Music  written  to  please 
will  last  only  so  long  as  that  particular  whim  of  the  public  lasts. 
But  when  Beethoven  struggles,  gropes,  and  conquers  in  the 
Ninth  Symphony,  all  who  come  after  him  whose  lot  it  is  to  grope 
and  struggle  too  learn  how  to  conquer.  The  poem  and  the  song 
born  out  of  the  deeps  of  experience  will  always  call  down  to  us 
in  our  serious  moments  as  deep  calleth  unto  deep.  That  is  why 
we  must  have  My  Faith  looks  up  to  Thee  in  our  hymn  books, 
because  it  was  written  by  a  young  man  who  was  groping  for 
more  light.  And  we  like  to  sing  Just  as  I  am  whatever  our 
creed,  because  something  in  it  tells  us  that  it  was  the  glad  utter- 
ance of  a  soul  that  had  long  resisted  the  light.  Tennyson's  In 
Memoriam  was  not  written  to  sell.  It  was  the  outburst  of  grief 
and  the  triumph  of  faith.  It  makes  no  difference  whether  it 
tickled  the  popular  fancy  at  first  or  not.  It  would  always  be 
loved,  for  did  it  not  say: 

If  e'er  when  faith  had  fallen  asleep,  I  heard  a  voice  "  Believe  no  more." 
And  heard  an  ever-breaking  shore  that  tumbled  in  a  godless  deep — 
A  warmth  within  the  breast  would  melt  the  freezing  reason's  colder  part, 
And  like  a  man  in  wrath,  the  heart  stood  up  and  answered  "  I  have  felt." 

So  Wagner  could  afford  to  wait,  because  he  did  not  write 
to  people's  fancies,  but  to  their  hearts.  What  he  said  in  music 


VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.       85 

was  the  strong  utterance  of  a  strong  soul.  It  takes  time  to 
reach  hearts. 

When  he  hear  those  marvelous  harmonies,  we  are  impressed 
with  the  fact  that  Wagner  put  his  religion  into  his  music,  or 
rather  his  music  was  the  result  of  his  religion.  This  is  his  idea 
in  his  own  words.  "  God/'  he  says,  "was  about  to  vanish  from 
our  sight;  he  left  us  for  an  eternal  memorial  of  himself  our 
music,  which  is  the  living  God  in  our  bosoms.  Hence  we  pre- 
serve our  music  and  ward  off  from  it  all  sacrilegious  hands,  for 
if  we  harken  to  frivolous  and  insincere  music  we  extinguish  the 
last  light  God  has  left  burning  within  us  to  lead  us  to  find  him 
anew."  In  commenting  upon  this,  Mr.  Albert  Eoss  Parsons, 
in  his  paper  on  the  Parsifal,  has  said: 

"  We  are  not  to  understand  Wagner  to  mean  that  hearing 
good  music  will  reform  a  man's  character  and  renew  a  right 
spirit  within  him.  No  one  knew  better  than  Wagner  that  to 
become  an  artist  one  must  not  only  be  a  hearer  but  also  a  doer 
of  the  word,  developing  one's  individual  powers  by  a  diligent 
use  of  suitable  means.  In  like  manner,  although  in  a  mate- 
rialistic age,  holy  music,  as  witness  of  the  indwelling  Spirit, 
may  lead  the  way  to  find  God  anew.  Religious  perceptions 
alone  will  not  insure  personal  attainments  in  religion;  that 
only  a  diligent  use  of  suitable  religious  and  devotional  means 
can  do." 

This  brings  us  to  the  very  point  which  I  desire  to  emphasize 
to-night  and  all  my  life. 

Wagner  calls  music  an  eternal  memorial  of  the  living  God. 
He  goes  further,  and  says  it  is  the  living  God  in  our  bosoms. 
Whatever  our  own  views,  we  will  at  least  admit  that  this  beauti- 
ful quality  of  soul,  our  ability  to  love  music,  is  God  given,  and 
is  in  that  respect  a  memorial  of  himself.  I  would  not  say  that 
it  is  the  only  one.  If  love  is  a  rainbow,  then  music  must  be  one 
of  the  colors  of  it.  Love  is  the  memorial  of  God  in  our  hearts. 
So  when  the  Spirit  whispers  to  us,  it  may  set  to  vibrating  the 
violet  of  song. 

When  my  little  girl  began  to  sing  that  morning,  God 
through  music  was  talking  to  her.  All  unconscious  of  it,  she 
made  answer,  "  Here  am  I."  The  music  that  she  heard  set  to 
7 


86  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

vibrating  the  memorial  of  God  in  her.     She  became  both  a 
hearer  and  a  doer  of  the  word. 

There  never  was  a  day  when  the  reverent  artist  and  the 
reverent  theologian  came  so  close  together  as  now.  They  recog- 
nize each  other  as  brothers.  They  believe  that  all  truth  came 
from  and  leads  back  to  God.  I  do  not  speak  to-night  from  the 
standpoint  of  the  preacher,  except  as  we  are  all  priests  and  artists 
together.  The  mother  is  the  most  eloquent  preacher  I  know. 
And  true  art  was  cradled  in  a  mother's  heart  after  it  came  from 
God.  I  speak  to  you  to-night  as  one  who  believes  that  all  art, 
science,  and  high  thought  are  coming  home  to  God,  and  that 
when  character  is  truly  developed  it  is  the  reshaping  of  the  soul 
into  the  likeness  of  God,  the  Lord  Christ  being  the  embodiment 
of  that  likeness  restored. 

To  develop  character  through  music,  then,  would  be  to  make 
Christlike  through  music. 

But  in  order  to  have  her  character  developed  through  music, 
my  child  must  be  a  conscious  doer  as  well  as  hearer  of  the  word. 
She  answered  sweetly  up  to  her  Father,  "  Here  am  I,"  but  she 
was  as  ignorant  that  it  was  God  calling  as  Samuel  was  when  -he 
said,  "  Here  am  I."  But  the  prophet  revealed  to  him  that  it 
was  the  voice  of  God. 

The  mother  is  the  high  priest  who  can  enter  the  holy  of 
holies  and  gently  make  these  revelations. 

The  songs  sung  out  of  emotion  and  a  full  heart  have  a  mar- 
velous power  to  develop  even  when  there  is  no  revelation.  You 
may  sing  to  a  child  and  fill  it  full  of  melody,  but  it  may  remain 
indifferent  and  cold.  When  it  begins  itself  to  sing,  the  enthusi- 
asm and  fire  comes. 

Our  best  educators  have  long  since  abandoned  the  stuffing 
theory.  It  has  become  a  trite  saying  that  to  educate  means  to 
lead  out.  But  why  have  we  not  applied  this  to  music?  If  the 
soul  of  a  child  is  a  bundle  of  closed  hands  that  have  not  been 
taught  to  open  and  reach  out,  the  hand  of  music  can,  in  most 
children,  be  taught  the  first  of  all.  In  fact,  we  know  that  long 
before  the  other  powers  have  developed  there  is  often  the  ability 
of  correct  musical  expression. 

Mr.  Tomlins,  of  Chicago,  began  to  teach  the  children  of  the 


VALUE  OP  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OP  CHARACTER.   87 

slums  to  sing.  The  result  revealed  to  him  an  unexpected  truth. 
These  rough  and  selfish  children  became  less  rough  and  less  self- 
ish. Boys  that  had  neglected  their  sisters  began  to  wait  for 
them;  some  who  had  fought  for  the  best  seats  asked  to  tend 
door;  others  who  had  been  absorbed  in  their  own  appearance 
organized  an  old  clothes  club,  to  gather  and  distribute  for  those 
less  fortunate  even  than  themselves. 

In  their  singing  these  children  became  conscious  of  them- 
selves. Not  only  were  they  revealed  to  themselves  as  individuals, 
but  a  new  and  better  self  was  revealed  to  them,  of  which  they 
had  before  been  ignorant. 

Then  they  began  to  sing  back  to  their  teacher  this  aroused, 
discovered,  and  better  self.  Each  one  said  in  effect  as  he  sang, 
"  I  now  sing  back  to  you  that  which  you  have  given  me — myself." 
In  this  teaching  there  had  been  nothing  of  what  we  call  moral 
instruction.  The  child  had  simply  been  given  the  opportunity 
to  express  his  best  self  through  song.  So  he  sung  his  best  self 
back  to  the  one  who  had  shown  him  the  wonder  of  it.  Further- 
more, he  began  to  do  what  he  conceived  his  leader  would  do. 
While  he  had  not  been  told,  the  boy  instinctively  felt  that  Mr. 
Tomlins  would  wait  for  his  own  sister  if  he  had  one  there;  he 
was  persuaded  by  the  logic  of  intuition  that  Mr.  Tomlins  would 
stand  at  the  door  and  open  it.  Perhaps  he  had  seen  him,  perhap.s 
he  had  seen  the  boys  in  the  stores,  and  it  now  came  to  mind  to 
relieve  him  in  his  groping  to  express  that  better  self.  At  any 
rate,  he  was  trying  to  live  up  to  a  new  light,  and  that  light  had 
shone  through  the  window  he  had  opened  by  his  song. 

There  would  seem  to  be  but  one  other  step  necessary  in  the 
development  of  those  children,  and  that  is  to  teach  them,  perhaps 
through  song  itself,  that  the  great  Benefactor,  the  real  Master 
of  souls  and  of  music  is  God;  that  they  might  sing  up  and  be- 
yond any  earthly  leader  to  the  source  of  all  melody,  saying  "  0 
my  Father,  thou  hast  spoken  to  me,  thou  hast  revealed  myself 
and  thyself  to  me,  thou  hast  called  me  from  darkness  to  light, 
from  selfishness  to  love,  and  I  sing  myself  back  to  the  lover  of 
my  soul." 

This  subject  is  as  broad  as  the  ocean  of  tone,  and  there  will 
be  in  your  minds  many  questions  which  I  shall  not  touch. 


gS  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

If  I  could  say  but  one  word  more  it  would  be  to  remind  you 
that  all  development  of  character  must  depend  largely  upon  the 
activity  of  the  child.  There  must  be  an  intelligent  forth-putting 
of  strength.  It  is  pleasant  to  listen  to  good  music,  but  it  is  growth 
to  make  it.  When  we  are  told  that  it  is  more  blessed  to  give 
than  to  receive,  we  may  not  know  that  we  are  dealing  with  a 
scientific  formula  that  holds  good  in  every  realm.  But  we  are. 
It  is  more  blessed  because  it  not  only  helps  the  recipient,  but 
the  giver  becomes  a  better  man  by  the  act. 

So  whether  the  child  sings  or  plays,  it  should  be  taught  from 
the  beginning  that  what  it  sings  and  what  it  plays  it  gives  to 
its  fellows  and  to  God.  The  child  simply  takes  what  has  been 
given  to  it,  and  gives  the  same  to  some  one  else.  One  may 
become  as  sordid  and  miserly  with  music  as  with  gold.  Both 
are  blessings  if  rightly  used,  but  either  may  become  a  curse. 

Prof.  Blodgett,  of  Smith  College,  has  written  a  beautiful 
article  on  the  influence  of  music  in  the  religious  life.  In  it  he 
criticises  Du  Maurier's  portrayal  of  Svengali  as  inconsistent. 
He  claims  ihat  no  one  of  Svengali's  low,  base  character  could  be 
a  true  ;artist.  That  is  an  immensely  important  point.  To  be  an 
artist  in  the  true  sense  one  must  be  in  sympathy  with  the  source 
of  art.  But  one  of  the  worst  men  I  ever  knew  was  a  beautiful 
singer,  -and  was  more  susceptible  to  music  than  most  musicians. 
So  the  devil  is  a  good  student  of  Scripture. 

A  white  robe  can  be  dragged  in  the  dust,  and  an  angel  can 
iall  from  glory.  It  will  never  be  safe  for  a  mother  to  assume 
that  because  a  child  is  musical  or  is  making  advances  in  music 
"that  it  is  being  brought  to  God.  With  the  music  there  must  be 
the  thought  of  God,  and  the  fact  that  pleasure  is  being  given 
should  make  the  child  forget  that  it  is  performing. 

I  once  condemned  before  an  audience  of  musicians  from 
Chicago  and  the  State  of  Illinois  the  habit  of  many  teachers  of 
prohibiting  their  pupils  from  playing  or  singing  even  before 
their  parents.  I  claimed  that  it  was  the  quackery  of  the  pro- 
fession. To  my  surprise  the  sentiment  was  applauded,  and  was 
afterward  commended  by  the  president  of  the  association,  an 
eminent  teacher.  I  mention  the  fact  as  important  because  it 
shows  that  these  men  are  with  us  in  the  idea  of  true  develop- 


VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.       89 

ment.  In  my  opinion,  the  child  should  begin  to  play  its  first 
lesson  for  its  father.  Xot  that  the  worthy  sire  will  derive  much 
enjoyment  from  the  performance,  except  as  it  means  to  him 
an  advance  step  for  his  child. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  selfishness  of  music  is  hardly  more 
deplorable  than  the  conceit  cultivated  by  the  "  showing-off " 
process.  In  his  later  life  Liszt  sat  for  his  portrait  before  the 
famous  artist  Ary  Schaffer.  His  face  assumed  an  artificial  ex- 
pression often  seen  when  he  was  before  the  public.  Schaffer 
said  very  quietly,  "  Oh,  not  like  that,  my  friend;  such  things 
do  not  impress  me."  To  which  Liszt  replied  with  confusion, 
"  Forgive,  dear  master,  but  you  do  not  know  how  it  spoils  one 
to  have  been  an  infant  prodigy."  Our  children  may  not  be 
infant  prodigies,  but  they  may  be  reduced  to  a  lower  level  still 
through  imbibing  the  idea  that  they  are. 

They  must  forget  themselves;  they  must  be  led  into  the 
realm  of  the  beautiful;  the  intelligence  must  keep  pace  with  the 
voice  or  the  fingers. 

And  where  is  the  best  music — in  the  voice  or  the  fingers? 
I  answer  unhesitatingly,  in  the  voice.  You  may  ask,  "  The  best 
for  whom?  "  and  I  answer  for  the  one  developed. 

In  itself  music  is  indefinite.  The  same  Nocturne  of  Chopin's 
may  excite  different  emotions  in  two  persons.  One  may  be  in- 
cited to  passion,  the  other  to  praise.  There  are,  to  be  sure,  noble 
compositions  that  almost  certainly  speak  lofty  things  to  all. 
Handel's  Largo  and  Schubert's  Symphony  in  B  Minor  are  ex- 
amples. But  even  these  must  have  an  awakened  spirit  to  greet 
them.  The  true  artist  can  reproduce,  in  his  own  soul  at  least, 
the  very  emotions  which  filled  the  composer.  But  unless  we 
know  the  circumstances  of  the  composition,  we  are  largely  in  the 
dark  as  to  the  meaning. 

A  song  is  music  and  a  definite  statement.  It  is  an  idea  float- 
ing on  melody.  He  who  listens  gets  more,  because  she  who 
sings  gives  more.  When  the  Swedish  Nightingale  first  came 
to  this  country,  she  wept  when  she  sang  I  know  that  my  Ee- 
deemer  liveth.  So  did  her  audience.  The  melody  played  or 
given  by  the  human  voice  without  words  would  not  have  had 
the  same  effect.  It  was  the  tender  and  yet  triumphant  utter- 


90  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ance  of  a  glorious  fact.  Instrumental  music  will  only  do  that 
when  some  association  of  ideas  sets  words  to  it  in  the  minds  of 
an  occasional  hearer.  The  song  always  has  words.  Put  a  sweet 
and  holy  song  into  the  mouth  of  your  child.  Never  mind  if  the 
voice  be  imperfect;  that  is  a  matter  of  small  consideration  com- 
pared to  the  good  that  may  come  to  the  child. 

And  what  is  song  after  all?  An  eminent  authority  has  told 
us  that  song  is  not  the  correct  voicing  of  correct  melodies.  Song, 
true  song,  is  the  utterance  of  self.  That  may  be  on  a  monotone. 
I  have  always  been  troubled  with  a  sensitive  ear,  yet  I  can  recall 
voices  that  would  be  called  harsh  that  filled  me  with  more  de- 
light than  some  of  the  smoothest  singing  I  ever  heard.  Simply 
because  the  harsher  tone  was  vibrant  with  soul.  The  cracked 
prism  gave  a  less  perfect  figure  than  the  one  unbroken.  But 
through  the  perfect  glass  there  came  only  a  candle  beam,  while 
through  the  other  shone  the  eun.  Song,  then,  is  the  means  of 
exalted  communion.  Most  of  Watt's  hymns  are  the  rhythmic 
climaxes  of  sermons.  Song  is  the  soul's  flight  when  walking  is 
too  slow.  Song  is  prayer. 

Prayer  is  the  soul's  sincere  desire,  uttered  or  unexpressed; 
The  motion  of  a  hidden  fire  that  trembles  in  the  breast. 

That  was  the  way  Handel  felt  when,  after  his  conversion  at 
fifty-five,  he  wrote  the  Messiah.  "  I  did  think  I  saw  all  heaven 
before  me  and  the  great  God  himself,"  was  his  account  of  his 
experience  as  he  wrote  the  Hallelujah  Chorus.  That  is  the  way 
you  feel  as  you  hear  it;  but  who  can  describe  what  you  feel  as 
you  sing  it?  "You  have  entertained  us,"  said  a  patronizing 
nobleman  to  Handel  after  the  first  performance.  "  I  hope  I 
have  made  you  better,"  replied  the  composer,  who  had  an  ex- 
alted estimate  of  his  art.  How  sweet  are  Haydn's  symphonies, 
how  delicate  his  quartettes  for  strings,  but  how  majestic  is  the 
Creation !  "  I  was  never  so  pious,"  said  Haydn,  "  as  when  com- 
posing the  Creation.  I  knelt  down  every  day  and  prayed  God  to 
strengthen  me  for  my  work.  I  know  that  God  has  bestowed  a 
talent  upon  me,  and  I  thank  him  for  it.  I  think  I  have  done 
my  duty,  and  have  been  of  use  in  my  generation  by  my  works. 
Let  others  do  the  same."  "  Not  mine!  not  mine!  "  he  exclaimed  . 


VALUE  OF  MUSIC  IN  DEVELOPMENT  OF  CHARACTER.       91 

when  for  the  last  time  he  heard  the  chorus  Let  there  be  Light; 
"  it  all  came  to  me  from  above."  This  is  art,  this  is  music  taken 
from  God's  hand  with  thankfulness,  and  given  back  again 
through  men's  hearts  for  the  glory  of  him  who  first  gave.  How 
exquisite  the  thought  that  music  written  thus  reverently  comes 
back  to  soothe  the  maker  of  it,  as  when  Mendelssohn,  upon 
hearing  his  own  chorus  sing  his  own  music  to  the  Forty-second 
Psalm,  put  down  his  head  on  his  hands  and  cried,  thinking  of 
his  mother  who  had  gone  home  to  perfect  melodies. 

It  is  a  more  exalted  thought  to  consider  how  such  men  and 
many  more  have  taught  so  many  men  to  pray.  "  As  the  hart 
panteth  after  the  water  brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee, 
0  God! " 

Here,  then,  mother,  is  a  gracious  means  for  you  to  use  in 
this  perplexing  process  of  soul  building.  Set  the  soul  a-singing. 
Make  it  sing  to  you  and  then  to  God. 

I  have  heard  children  sing  Father,  we  thank  Thee  when  I 
could  tell  there  was  no  thankfulness  in  their  hearts.  A  few 
words  about  the  Father,  and  what  he  is  to  the  children,  would 
produce  a  different  hymn,  because  it  would  become  fervent- 
voiced  with  conscious  praise. 

Praise  is  to  be  the  final  utterance  of  the  heart;  not  petition, 
but  thanksgiving.  We  always  ask  more  than  we  thank.  Only 
one  out  of  ten  healed  came  back  to  acknowledge  the  restoration. 
We  are  crying,  "  Have  mercy  on  us!  "  and  we  have  reason  to. 
But  if  we  could  change  that  minor  dirge  to  the  major  anthem, 
Thanks  be  unto  God,  there  would  be  less  to  forgive  and  less 
occasion  to  cry  "  Mercy!  " 

Every  home  needs  the  sunshine  of  thankfulness.  Every 
child  should  be  a  sunbeam  in  that  home.  For  we  are  in  a  dusty 
world,  and  we  greatly  need,  as  you  know,  the  swift  fanning  of 
the  little  angel's  wings.  We  are  in  a  dark  world,  and  we  greatly 
need,  as  you  know,  that  kindly  light  amid  the  encircling  gloom 
to  lead  us  on.  We  are  in  a  world  full  of  the  cries  of  pain  and  dis- 
cordant tones  of  anger,  and  we  greatly  need,  as  you  know,  some 
one  who  can  make  out  of  them  all  a  melody  of  heaven.  There 
were  children  who  were  blessed  by  divine  hands,  and  there  were 
children  who  were  set  in  the  midst  to  illustrate  the  kingdom. 


92  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Those  children  were  not  forgetful.  And  when  One  came  riding 
to  the  Temple,  in  the  last  agonizing  week  of  his  life,  no  great 
choirs  of  Levites  greeted  him;  the  only  music  was  the  songs  the 
children  made.  So  you,  mothers,  after  laying  hands  of  blessing 
on  the  child,  after  leading  him  into  the  midst  of  the  group  whose 
chief  is  the  Master,  will  find  in  after  years,  when  you  feel  that 
the  last  day  for  you  draws  nigh,  that  the  old  cradle  hymn  you 
sung  so  lovingly,  so  tremblingly,  will  come  back  to  you  in  the 
hour  when  you  are  dumb,  sung  by  the  child  you  taught  to  sing: 

All  we  have  willed,  or  hoped,  or  dreamed  of  good  shall  exist ; 

Not  its  semblance,  but  itself ;  no  beauty,  nor  good,  nor  power 
Whose  voice  has  gone  forth,  but  each  survives  for  the  melodist, 

When  eternity  affirms  the  conception  of  an  hour. 

The  high  that  proved  too  high,  the  heroic  for  earth  too  hard, 
The  passion  that  left  the  ground  to  lose  itself  in  the  sky, 

Are  music  sent  up  to  God  by  the  lover  and  the  bard ; 
Enough  that  he  heard  it  once  :  we  shall  hear  it  by  and  by. 

There  is  a  German  song  which  tells  how  an  angel  brought 
a  babe  from  heaven  to  earth,  and  as  it  bore  it  through  space 
upon  its  bosom  laid  the  angel  sang  a  song  in  the  ear  of  the  child 
— a  song  that  was  never  forgotten  on  earth,  and  helped  it  gain 
heaven  at  last. 

Methinks  some  of  us  can  testify  that  a  sweet-faced,  heaven- 
voiced  angel  sang  to  us  while  we  were  carried  on  a  tender  bosom, 
so  long  ago,  so  long  ago,  and  in  the  moments  of  weariness  or  dis- 
couragement that  old  mother  song  comes  to  us.  It  has  kept  us 
from  yielding  to  dark  sins,  it  has' guarded,  as  with  a  flaming  song, 
the  boy  at  college  and  the  girl  away  from  home.  0  mothers, 
sing  the  old  sweet  song  to  the  children,  for  on  that  hymn  they 
may  be  borne  one  day  to  God! 


THURSDAY  MORNING,  10:30  O'CLOCK. 
DEVOTIONAL. 

MOTHERS  TO   THE  MOTHERLESS. 

BY  MRS.  MAUD  BALLINGTON  BOOTH, 

New  York  City. 

SHALL  we  commence  by  singing  two  verses — the  first  and  the 
third  verses — of  Nearer,  my  God,  to  Thee?  Surely  no  hearts 
can  more  need  reliance  upon  the  great,  tender,  divine  heart  than 
the  hearts  of  mothers  and  women  who  are  facing  the  problems 
which  they  can  solve  perhaps  better  than  any  others. 

[The  verses  were  sung,  and  Mrs.  Booth  resumed  as  follows:] 
I  will  read  just  a  few  verses.    Let  us  lift  our  hearts,  with  our 
hands,  unto  God  in  the  heavens: 

"  Who  is  like  unto  the  Lord  our  God,  who  dwelleth  on  high, 

"  Who  humbleth  himself  to  behold  the  things  that  are  in  heaven,  and  in 
the  earth ! " 

"  Unto  thee,  0  Lord,  do  I  lift  up  my  soul." 

"  I  stretch  forth  my  hands  unto  thee : 

"...  Hide  not  thy  face  from  me,  lest  I  be  like  unto  them  that  go  down 
into  the  pit. 

"  Cause  me  to  hear  thy  lovingkindness  in  the  morning ;  for  in  thee  do  I 
trust :  cause  me  to  know  the  way  wherein  I  should  walk ;  for  I  lift  up  my 
soul  unto  thee." 

"  Because  thy  lovingkindness  is  better  than  life,  my  lips  shall  praise 
thee. 

"  Thus  will  I  bless  thee  while  I  live." 

"  And  whatsoever  ye  shall  ask  in  my  name,  that  will  I  do." 

It  seems  to  me  that  to  the  many  hearts  here  gathered,  in  the 
early  morning  hours  of  such  a  convention  as  this,  it  is  a  great 


94  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

comfort  and  a  great  strength  to  feel  that  in  all  which  is  done 
and  said,  in  all  the  plans  and  propositions  brought  forth,  in  all 
the  efforts  of  poor  human  minds  and  weak  woman's  hands,  we 
have  the  right  to 'turn  and  claim  the  great  strong  hand  of  Jeho- 
vah; that  we  have  the  right  to  turn  and  cast  our  little  hearts 
upon  the  great  heart  that  is  like  an  ocean  of  love;  and  that 
through  him  we  can  have  not  only  the  giving  forth  to  the  world 
of  our  many  propositions,  not  only  the  giving  forth  throughout 
the  nation  of  fresh  inspiration  to  other  mother  hearts,  hut  that 
we  ourselves  may  go  forth  with  a  new  touch  of  love  and  inspira- 
tion to  carry  out  in  our  lives,  and  through  the  sweet  influence  of 
lives  attached  and  consecrated  to  his  service,  the  greatest,  high- 
est possibilities  of  our  nature.  I  have  come  into  your  meeting 
unprepared.  I  have  not  attended  the  other  meetings,  nor  have 
I  read  that  which  has  been  said  by  others  here.  I  had  to  fly  in 
here  from  my  work  this  morning,  and  shall  have  to  catch  the 
next  train  back  to  New  York,  so  that  I  feel  that,  in  the  few 
moments  during  which  I  may  speak  to  you,  I  may  perhaps  bring 
thoughts  to  you  which  are  not  in  line  with  the  thoughts  of 
others  who  are  present,  and  which,  already  discussed,  are  near 
to  your  hearts.  But,  it  seems  to  me,  there  is  one  thought  that 
should  run  through  everything  and  be  our  great  inspiration, 
and  make  us  go  out  into  our  life  work  with  fresh  courage — the 
thought  that  the  God  who  put  the  mother  instinct  into  the 
woman's  heart  can  so  develop  it  and  so  fill  that  heart  with  his 
own  true  Spirit  as  to  make  it  deep  and  broad  and  wide  and  strong 
to  go  forth  and  help  carry  the  burdens  of  the  many  downtrodden 
ones,  and  not  only  bring  fresh  inspiration  and  fresh  hope  to  the 
little  lives  we  live,  but  go  forth  with  the  broader  thought  of  a 
motherhood  that  embraces  the  unloved  and  unmothered  ones  of 
others. 

I  suppose  there  is  no  sweeter  thing  on  earth  than  mother  love. 
As  we  look  back  to  the  days  when  our  heads  were  pillowed  on 
our  mothers'  breasts,  the  time  when  fears  were  stilled  and  tears 
wiped  away  by  the  tender  hand,  the  hand  which  no  other  hand 
could  ever  be  like — the  mother  hand — we  know  the  thrill  it 
brought  to  us,  and  as  we  have  to  look  back  to  it,  some  of  us  over 
a  grave,  and  know  that  that  dear  one  has  gone  forever  into  the 


MOTHERS  TO  THE  MOTHERLESS.  95 

other  world,  we  can  see  that  there  has  never  been  to  us  another 
love  like  mother  love.  So  it  seems  to  me  that  those  of  us  who 
stand  to-day  in  the  position  of  mothers,  and  who  in  our  turn 
look  down  upon  the  sweet  baby  eyes  and  kiss  the  baby  lips,  must 
think  again  of  how  our  mothers  comforted  us,  and  feel  the  pre- 
ciousness  of  the  new  love  God  has  brought  into  our  lives. 

But  those  of  us  who  love  the  world,  and  love  to  see  dark 
homes  brightened,  can  surely  realize  that  mother  love  is  some- 
thing great,  and  akin  to  the  divine  love.  We  realize  that  God 
can  so  kindle  our  hearts  that  he  can  send  us  out  into  the  world 
to  be  mothers  to  the  unmothered,  and  to  bring  just  what  is 
needed  to  the  many  hearts  to-day  blighted  and  ruined  and 
empty  and  hopeless  for  want  of  that  which  we  can  give  them. 
I  think  that  perhaps,  as  a  young  mother  here,  if  I  were  to  speak 
on  the  topics  others  will  speak  on — education,  etc. — I  would  be 
beyond  the  sea.  I  do  not  come  simply  as  a  mother  whom  God 
has  blessed  with  two  darling  children  of  my  own,  but  I  feel  that 
my  mother  love  must  extend  itself  to  the  many  boys  who  are 
motherless,  and  whom  the  Lord  has  brought  to  me  in  the  line 
of  my  work.  He  has  sent  me  behind  prison  bolts  and  bars,  and 
to-day  I  have  learned  to  love  nearly  as  dearly  the  boys  there, 
whose  blighted  lives  have  wrecked  many  homes,  some  of  them 
the  sons  of  praying  mothers,  and  who  turn  to  me  when  I  talk 
to  them  and  pray  for  them  and  weep  over  them,  and  say  to  me, 
*  I  feel  that  you  are  the  answer  to  my  mother's  prayers,  who  has 
gone  on  beyond."  And  there  I  go  with  a  mother  heart,  even  if. 
not  with  great  experience  within  my  own  little  home,  and  I  feel 
from  what  God  has  taught  me,  and  from  what  has  come  to  me 
as  the  touch  of  his  own  divine  hand,  that  mother  love  is  not 
what  the  world  would  deem  it,  but  that  the  mother  heart  can  be 
the  heart  of  every  woman,  whether  she  has  ever  cradled  a  baby 
or  not.  I  believe  that  womanhood  can  be  developed  into  mother- 
hood, whether  in  the  heart  of  a  young  girl  or  the  heart  of  one 
who  has  half  a  dozen  children  in  her  own  home.  Woman's  heart 
is  a  great,  wonderful,  tender  possibility.  Alas,  that  some  women 
should  have  cramped  and  narrowed  their  precious  hearts,  that 
could  have  been  developed  to  great  possibilities,  even  as  our 
Chinese  sisters  cramp  their  feet!  You  will  find  the  woman  with 


96  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

the  narrow  heart  and  soul,  who  cares  only  for  her  little  circle, 
and  is  not  touched  with  the  sympathy  of  the  sorrowing  world; 
but  I  believe  that  when  the  heart  comes  into  touch  with  divine 
love,  when  the  inspiration  of  God  comes  into  the  soul,  his  dear 
hand  points  out  to  the  sorrow  and  darkness  and  evil  and 
misery  of  the  world,  and  when  the  woman's  eyes  see  clearly, 
when  the  narrow  limit  of  her  selfish  interest  has  been  extended 
(perhaps  it  was  due  to  faulty  education  or  to  some  faults  inherent 
in  her  own  disposition),  she  may  come  to  see  the  great  crying 
need  of  leaving  that  narrow  life;  and  I  believe  that  her  second 
impulse  should  be  to  throw  herself  into  the  great  strong  arms 
of  God  to  develop  the  great  strong  soul,  that  it  may  go  on  and 
take  upon  itself  the  burdens  of  others;  and  each  burden  she 
seeks  to  carry  will  make  her  stronger,  so  that  her  influence  will 
be  one,  whether  on  the  platform,  in  the  pulpit,  in  the  school, 
or  only  in  the  home  and  among  her  own  friends,  that  will  help 
and  strengthen  and  bless  other  hearts. 

Sometimes  when  talking  to  those  who  say,  "  I  love  the  work 
you  are  doing,  and  to  see  women  consecrating  their  lives  to  the 
good  of  others,"  I  do  not  feel  that  I  do  love  them.  I  look  into 
my  own  heart  and  soul,  and  do  not  feel  the  impulse.  I  know  I 
have  my  duties,  and  am  going  to  try  faithfully  to  perform  them, 
but  it  is  often  very  hard  to  perform  them.  I  believe  that  duties 
can  become  matters  of  choice;  I  believe  that  the  life  touched 
with  the  true  inspiration  can  become  a  life  of  joyful  service,  and 
no  more  will  you  hear  of  duties,  burdens,  or  responsibilities  that 
must  be  carried  because  they  are  necessities,  but  you  will  hear 
of  springing  forth  and  doing  the  work;  and  when  one  is  asked, 
"  Is  it  not  a  cross?  "  the  smiling  answer  will  be,  "  No,  it  is  a 

joy." 

Away  out  in  India,  on  the  lakes  in  the  jungles  of  that  coun- 
try, grows  the  sacred  lotus  flower,  and  I  am  told  by  those  who 
have  traveled  there  that  those  flowers  on  cloudy  days  are  closely 
shut,  so  that  the  passer-by,  seeing  neither  the  flower  nor  its 
peculiar  buds,  would  not  know  that  they  were  there;  but  when 
the  sunlight  comes  the  petals  open,  revealing  the  beauty  of  the 
flowers,  whose  sweet  scent  is  wafted  toward  him,  even  while  he 
is  yet  far  off,  and  he  knows  that  the  lotus  is  there.  And  so  it 


MOTHERS  TO  THE  MOTHERLESS.  97 

seems  to  me  is  it  with  the  hearts  that  have  been  closed  and  have 
kept  their  sweetness  just  .for  their  own,  their  gifts  safely  locked 
up,  shut  away,  and  do  not  know  why  it  is  so  difficult  for  them 
to  benefit  other  lives,  bringing  a  sweet,  blessed  influence  to  their 
hearts.  It  is  perhaps  because  the  divine  touch  from  the  Son  of 
Eighteousness  has  not  yet  come  to  them;  but  when  it  comes  the 
heart  opens,  and,  as  it  opens  to  its  God,  he  will  send  to  it  perhaps 
storms  and  suffering,  perhaps  sweet  breezes  of  blessing,  and  as 
they  pass  over  that  heart  they  shall  take  hither  and  thither  to 
other  hearts  the  precious  message — the  most  precious  message 
that  can  come  to  any  human  being — the  message  of  love  and 
sympathy,  and  hither  and  thither  it  will  go,  doing  its  own  sweet, 
glad  work  and  bringing  back  its  own  reward. 

In  my  own  work,  as  the  leader  of  the  Volunteers  of  America, 
and  as  a  visitor  to  the  boys  in  prison,  I  have  felt  that  the  great 
secret  of  woman's  power  is  the  power  of  love.  God  has  used 
woman  in  these  days  further  than  ever  before  in  educational 
lines.  Her  lips  in  oratory  are  opened  to  influence  thousands  as 
a  mighty  power,  and  the  nation  is  waking  up  to  feel  that  she  is 
a  power  not  only  in  rocking  the  cradle  and  influencing  her  own 
baby,  but  also  in  bringing  back  the  other  babies  who  have  gone 
away;  and  she  is  bringing  very  many  of  them  back  to  the  path 
they  should  have  trodden  long  ago.  But  with  all  of  our  other 
influences  we  can  put  into  the  scale  one  which  will  outweigh 
the  others,  and  that  is  the  influence  of  love.  In  my  work  I  have 
seen,  as  I  have  looked  into  the  hearts  and  lives  of  those  who 
have  been  ruined  and  spoiled  and  broken,  how  wonderful  that 
is,  for  I  have  seen  in  many  hardened  hearts  the  traces  of  the 
mother  influence,  the  mother  love. 

Only  the  other  day,  in  the  State  Prison  at  Sing  Sing,  N.  Y., 
an  incident  occurred  that  greatly  shocked  the  public.  A  young 
man  had  for  some  twelve  or  fourteen  days  been  shut  in  his  cell, 
because  through  cruel  legislative  action  work  has  been  taken 
from  the  hands  of  those  men — a  law  which  is  a  blot  upon  our 
State,  and  which,  I  believe,  will  mean  insanity  to  scores  of  men, 
and  death  perhaps  to  hundreds.  This  young  man  was  known 
to  me.  I  have  his  letters  now  in  my  office,  and  I  may  say  here 
that  I  have  from  my  boys  in  prison  something  like  three  hundred 


93  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

letters  a  week,  so  that  you  may  understand  what  family  cares  I 
have.  I  tell  some  of  my  big  sons  that  when  they  have  come 
through  the  terms  of  their  sentences,  and  are  restored  to  the 
world  full  grown,  I  must  put  on  older  airs,  or  before  they  come 
home  none  of  them  will  believe  that  I  am  his  mother.  This  boy 
was  never  a  criminal  at  heart.  He  was  wild  and  went  astray, 
and  committed  one  rash  act  that  landed  him  in  prison,  and  for 
twelve  or  fourteen  days  had  brooded  in  his  cell,  until  one  morn- 
ing he  sprang  from  the  gallery  and  took  his  life,  crushing  it  out. 
AVhat  was  this?  It  was  the  act  of  a  maddened  brain.  But  what 
was  back  of  that?  It  was  an  aching,  breaking  heart,  because 
he  longed  for  one  word  from  his  mother,  one  letter.  He  had 
pleaded  for  one  word  of  forgiveness  from  that  mother,  but  no 
message  of  love  came,  and  he  brooded  upon  this  until  his  reason 
was  dethroned.  And  when  she  saw  his  body,  she  said:  "  I  have 
wept  all  the  tears  I  could  weep.  I  would  have  written  him  and 
tried  to  comfort  him,  but  his  father  prevented  me  from  doing 
so,  and  I  shall  never  forgive  myself/' 

I  thought,  "Aye,  if  the  mothers  would  always  remember 
how  the  mother  love  is  treasured  by  the  boys,  even  by  those  who 
have  gone  astray  and  wandered  far,  and  how  the  thought  of  the 
prayers  they  have  heard  and  said  in  their  childhood,  and  of  the 
tender  touch,  the  mother's  sympathy,  comes  back  to  them  when 
they  have  time  to  think,  mothers  would  not  be  discouraged  even 
when  it  seems  to  them  that  the  young  feet  have  wandered  far 
from  the  true  path,  and  they  would  never  stop  loving  their  boys 
and  letting  that  love  be  known." 

There  are  stories  on  the  other  side  that  I  might  tell  you: 
Only  a  short  time  ago  I  went  to  California,  and  there  one  day 
a  message  was  sent  me  to  the  effect  that  a  lady  and  her  daughter 
wished  to  see  me.  I  had  held  two  meetings  already  that  day, 
and  another  was  coming  on,  and  I  could  see  no  one,  and  had  to 
say  so.  But  the  message  came  back,  "It  is  George  Jones's 
mother"  (I  give  the  name  because  it  is  not  a  secret);  and  that 
entirely  altered  the  case,  and  I  went  in  to  see  her.  I  found 
a  dear  old  lady  in  widow's  weeds,  with  a  beautiful  girl  by  her 
side,  evidently  well-to-do  people.  And  coming  up  to  me,  the 
mother  took  my  hands  in  hers,  tears  coursing  down  her  cheeks, 


MOTHERS  TO  THE  MOTHERLESS.          99 

and  said:  "  I  felt  I  must  see  you,  and  for  that  I  have  come  forty 
miles.  I  was  ill  yesterday,  and  my  daughter  said  I  should  not 
go,  but  I  told  them,  *  I  will  die  if  I  do  not  see  her,  because  she 
has  seen  my  boy.'  '' 

Of  course  she  wanted  answers  to  the  hundred  and  one  ques- 
tions that  only  a  mother  could  ask,  and  she  made  me  tell  her  how 
he  was  doing;  and  I  had  the  joy  of  saying  that,  though  he  had 
been  astray — gone  wrong — he  had  finally  given  his  heart  to 
God,  and  was  then  living,  within  prison  walls,  a  sublimely  beau- 
tiful life,  and  was  coming  back  to  be  her  stay  and  comfort  and 
support.  And  then,  when  she  had  given  me  all  her  tender  mes- 
sages, and  told  me  how  to  care  for  him  and  to  send  him  back  to 
her,  she  kissed  me  and  said:  "  Oh,  you  have  lifted  such  a  burden 
from  my  heart.  I  can  not  tell  you  how  heavy  it  has  been." 

When  I  told  the  boy  about  it,  I  could  see  how  her  precious 
influence  and  prayers  and  tears  had  followed  him,  and  how  his 
first  thought  when  he  met  his  God  was  to  rise  up  and  make  him- 
self a  man  worthy  of  that  mother,  so  that  he  could  go  back  to 
be  her  stay  and  comfort  in  her  last  days.  And  I  feel  that  this 
touch  of  sympathy,  whether  we  be  mothers  or  have  no  little 
ones  of  our  own,  is  a  touch  that  will  bring  back  again  and  again 
and  again  joy  to  our  own  hearts  and  strength  to  our  own  lives. 

What  about  those  little  darlings  in  our  homes?  I  glory 
in  the  fact  that  the  woman  who  carries  a  share  of  the  burdens 
of  the  world,  who  goes  out  on  the  platform,  or  speaks  from  the 
pulpit,  or  goes  to  the  bar,  or  stands  out  for  those  things  she 
thinks  right  and  true,  can  be  a  truer,  better  mother  in  her  own 
home  than  any  other  woman.  I  believe  any  woman  who  deserted 
her  baby  for  the  public  would  be  a  woman  who  would  in  the 
future  find  that  her  work  was  not  good;  but  I  believe  that  we 
can  hold  our  darlings  with  a  tighter  grasp,  that  they  are  safer, 
and  that  they  shall  be  greatly  blessed  by  the  fact  that  we  take 
also  into  our  hearts  the  motherless,  unloved  ones  whom  we  can 
help  and  comfort;  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  some 
lives  there  has  been  no  mother's  influences. 

One  of  my  boys  has  written  me  a  letter — I  am  the  only  one 
he  has  ever  called  "  mother  " — -in  which  he  says:  "  Oh,  that  you 
were  my  own  mother!  She  died  when  I  was  two  years  old,  and 


100  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

I  have  never  known  a  mother's  love  or  comfort."  Ah,  if  we 
could  bring  to  such  hearts  the  touch  that  would  kindle  the  holy 
inspiration,  to  help  draw  them  away  from  mean  things  to  those 
which  are  higher  and  worthier  and  nobler! 

Surely  the  heart  that  loves  most  truly  loves  where  it  is  the 
most  needed.  I  remember  when  my  darling  baby  was  quite  a 
little  mite,  just  able  to  creep,  I  gave  her  a  rag  doll,  her  first  toy. 
I  thought  it  was  wise  to  purchase  a  rag  doll,  because  there  was 
already  a  son  in  the  family,  and  other  dolls  have  ways  of  getting 
broken  more  easily  than  rag  dolls.  I  wondered  whether  she 
would  recognize  what  it  was.  Well,  the  very  moment  I  gave  it 
to  her  the  baby  arms  went  out,  and  she  clasped  it  to  her  breast 
and  kissed  it,  and  showed  me  the  strength  of  mother  love  in  the 
baby  heart.  From  that  moment  she  was  inseparable  from  her 
rag  doll — it  was  all  rags,  except  its  eyes.  Soon  one  eye  fell  in, 
and  I  was  told  that  that  was  the  work  of  my  son.  But  my  baby 
was  oblivious  to  it,  and  thought  just  as  much  of  her  rag  doll  as 
ever.  It  was  just  as  much  her  "  dear  doddy."  Shortly  after, 
the  other  eye  fell  in,  and  with  its  empty  sockets  she  loved  it  just 
the  same,  and  kissed  the  poor  lips  just  as  fondly.  Then  went 
part  of  the  clothes,  and  then  one  arm,  and  then  one  leg,  and 
then  all  the  clothes,  until  there  was  nothing  left  but  the  old 
stump  stuffed  with  straw,  one  leg,  and  one  arm  gone;  and  still  it 
was  just  as  much  her  own  "  doddy,"  only  that  in  petting  it  she 
had  the  good  sense  to  add  the  word  "  poor " — "  poor,  dear 
doddy."  It  became  disreputable,  but  she  would  never  part  with 
it,  and  by  and  by,  when  nothing  was  left  but  the  old  stump  with 
one  leg  attached  to  it,  and  when  no  one  else  would  have  thought 
it  was  a  "  doddy  "  at  all,  she  loved  and  comforted  it  more  than 
ever,  and  I  would  see  her  in  bed,  lying  with  her  pink,  flushed 
face  against  the  rag  and  her  arm  around  it — her  "poor,  dear 
doddy."  I  brought  her  a  beautiful  doll  in  its  stead,  with  hair 
and  movable  eyes  and  fine  clothes;  but  she  just  dropped  it,  and 
would  not  call  it  even  a  doll,  and  stretched  her  little  arms  out 
for  the 'rag.  And  as  I  looked  at  my  baby  I  reached  up  higher, 
and  said,  "  Dear  Lord,  is  not  that  a  picture  of  the  mother  love 
you  would  put  in  the  soul?" 

The  mother  does  not  love  only  that  which  can  repay  her. 


DIETETICS.  101 

If  you  were  to  go  to  the  mother  bending  lovingly  over  the 
crippled  child,  or  the  one  spoiled  by  some  disease,  or  one  not 
having  the  strength  of  others,  and  say:  "  I  am  surprised  at  you. 
Here  are  your  other  sons  and  daughters,  who  will  make  marks 
in  the  world,  and  you  are  most  attached  to  this  one,"  she  would 
rise  in  the  indignation  of  her  motherhood  and  say:  "  I  am  its 
mother.  This  is  my  child,  the  one  that  needs  me  most,  and  shall 
have  me  most."  And  so,  it  seems  to  me,  when  looking  out  upon 
the  world  and  seeing,  as  I  do,  the  blighted,  wrecked  lives,  the 
fallen  women  and  the  outcast  men,  the  besotted  drunkard  and 
the  poor  boy,  branded  in  the  State  prison,  and  the  world  says, 
"  I  don't  see  anything  to  redeem  or  love  in  that  one  ";  and  when 
I  come  to  think  of  the  great  Father  heart,  who  loves  the  outcast 
one,  who  turns  to  the  one  who  needs  him  most,  it  seems  to  me 
that  it  is  just  that  love  that  he  can  put  into  every  woman's  heart 
here,  and  send  her  out  to  love  where  her  love  is  most  needed, 
and  that  love  shall  help  to  redeem  the  world  and  raise  it  up  into 
the  arms  of  the  great  God  who  can  save  it. 


DIETETICS.* 

BY  MRS.  LOUISE  E.  HOOAN, 
Germantown,  Pa. 

OUR  well-known  Commissioner  of  Education,  Dr.  Harris,  tells 
us,  in  his  preface  to  Emile,  that  Eousseau,  w^ho  was  the  great 
pioneer  in  the  work  of  studying  human  character  as  it  develops 
in  childhood,  has  made  educators  recognize  the  sacredness  of 
childhood. 

Rousseau  says  in  this  work  that,  in  order  to  love  the  peace- 
ful life  of  the  home,  it  must  be  known,  and  to  this  end  domestic 
education  is  recommended. 

The  study  of  dietetics,  as  applied  to  the  nursery  and  the 
period  of  childhood,  is  constantly  brought  to  our  notice  as  an 
important  phase  of  domestic  education. 

*  Copyright,  1897,  by  Louise  E.  Hogan.     All  rights  reserved  by  author. 
8 


102  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHEBS. 

Dr.  Jacobi  very  wisely  remarks  that  to  understand  only  a 
small  part  of  what  is  known  on  the  vast  topic  of  the  development 
of  infant  life  the  mother  must  consult  not  one  little  volume,  but 
many  big  books. 

The  first  step  we  should  take  as  mothers  in  regard  to  the 
careful  feeding  of  our  children  should  be  to  convince  ourselves 
thoroughly  of  its  necessity. 

Many  mothers  may  say:  "  But  I  don't  need  any  dietetic  rules 
for  my  baby  of  eighteen  months  or  two  years.  He  eats  every- 
thing, and  is  quite  well."  Dr.  L.  Emmett  Holt,  of  the  Babies' 
Hospital  of  New  York,  says  he  has  had  quite  a  large  experience 
with  those  children  who  "  ate  everything  "  and  seemed  to  relish 
it,  and  has  followed  a  number  of  them  to  their  graves  as  the 
ultimate  result  of  such  unreasonable  and  inconsiderate  practice. 

Dr.  Eotch,  Professor  of  Children's  Diseases  at  Harvard,  says 
it  is  worse  than  folly  for  mothers  to  attempt  at  an  early  age,  as 
is  frequently  done,  to  accustom  their  children  to  the  use  of 
everything  and  anything  from  the  table. 

Prof.  Fonssagrives,  of  Paris,  says  the  number  of  cases  of  dis- 
ease which  can  be  arrested  in  children  by  instituting  a  preven- 
tive diet  is  almost  incredible.  Rousseau  dwells  strongly  upon 
the  facts  that  a  weak  body  in  a  child  enfeebles  the  soul;  that  the 
education  of  man  begins  at  his  birth;  that  simplicity  in  diet  is 
an  absolute  necessity  for  sound  physical  growth;  and  that  the 
most  dangerous  period  in  human  life  is  the  interval  between 
birth  and  the  age  of  twelve.  He  also  says,  in  speaking  of  mental 
growth,  that  the  soul  must  have  leisure  to  perfect  its  powers 
before  it  is  called  upon  to  use  them.  This  is  equally  tme  of 
physical  growth.  We  are  working  for  future  resistance,  not  for 
immediate  results  only,  when  we  consider  the  dietetic  and  hygi- 
enic needs  of  our  children,  and  we  must  not  forget  that  there 
is  a  lifetime  for  mental  development,  and  only  part  of  one  during 
which  the  physical  building-up  process  can  be  regulated.  If  we 
will  but  keep  in  mind  Rousseau's  suggestive  statement  that  the 
most  important,  the  most  useful  rule  in  all  education  is  not  to 
gain  time,  but  to  lose  it,  we  will  move  slowly  but  carefully  in 
our  work  of  building  up  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  Just 
as  at  first  in  mental  education  we  endeavor  to  shield  a  child 


DIETETICS.  103 

from  evil  and  error,  instead  of  directly  teaching  virtue  and  truth, 
so  in  physical  education  prevention,  instead  of  cure,  should  "be 
our  watchword. 

Froebel,  to  whom  we  owe  the  kindergarten,  says,  "  The  child, 
the  boy— the  man,  indeed — should  know  no  other  endeavor  but 
to  be  at  every  stage  of  development  wholly  what  this  stage  calls 
for." 

He  says  the  earlier  stage  of  human  development  and  cultiva- 
tion is  always  the  more  important.  In  its  place  and  time  each 
stage  is  equally  important,  but  of  the  first  (upon  which  future 
normal  physical  and  mental  growth  depends  so  largely)  there  can 
be  no  question  %s  to  its  importance;  hence  upon  us,  as  mothers, 
rests  the  responsibility  for  the  first  step,  for  we  have  the  first 
opportunity.  In  connection  with  this  early  period  of  childhood, 
he  says  the  child's  food  is  a  matter  of  very  great  importance  not 
only  at  the  time  (for  the  child  may  by  its  food  be  made  indolent 
or  active,  sluggish  or  mobile,  dull  or  bright,  inert  or  vigorous), 
but,  indeed,  for  its  entire  life.  He  says  parents  and  nurses  should 
ever  remember,  as  underlying  every  precept  in  this  direction, 
the  general  principles  that  simplicity  and  frugality  in  food  and 
in  other  physical  needs  during  the  years  of  childhood  enhance 
man's  power  of  attaining  happiness  and  vigor — true  creativeness 
in  every  respect.  He  says  that  if  parents  would  consider  that  not 
only  much  individual  and  personal  happiness,  but  even  much 
domestic  happiness  and  general  prosperity  depend  on  this,  how 
very  differently  they  would  act;  but  here  the  foolish  mother, 
there  the  childish  father  is  to  blame.  We  see  them  give  their 
children  all  kinds  of  poison  in  every  form,  coarse  and  fine.  That 
this  is  true,  even  to-day — fifty  years  later — shows  how  little  ad- 
vance has  been  made  in  general  in  the  direction  of  dietary 
reform.  Incredible  as  it  may  seem,  I  have  seen  a  child  of  four 
drink  beer — from  habit — and  I  was  looked  upon  in  the  light  of 
a  faddist  for  protesting  where  I  was  not  properly  introduced. 

Another  instance  of  this  kind  I  noted  while  awaiting  my 
turn  one  day  in  the  office  of  a  prominent  New  York  physician 
for  children,  when  I  saw  a  mother  with  a  child  apparently  two 
years  old  leave  the  house  for  a  few'  moments  to  get  something, 
as  I  heard  her  say,  "  to  quiet  the  child,"  who  was  crying.  As  she 


104  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

went  out  she  said  to  the  servant  at  the  door  that  she  had  brought 
the  child  to  the  physician  because  he  wasn't  well,  and  wouldn't 
eat.  She  returned  in  a  few  minutes,  and  it  was  eating  a  so-called 
ripe  banana.  The  skin  was  green,  and  I  felt  impelled  to  send 
word  to  the  physician  to  forewarn  him,  as  the  mother's  turn  pre- 
ceded mine,  but  I  did  not  do  it,  nor  can  I  tell  why.  I  think  I 
was  prevented  by  the  apparent  hopelessness  of  convincing  such 
a  mother  that  she  was  doing  harm,  and  both  the  child  and 
physician  had  my  sympathy  for  various  reasons. 

Froebel  goes  on  to  say  in  this  connection :  "  It  is  by  far  easier 
than  we  think  to  promote  and  establish  the  happiness  and  wel- 
fare of  mankind.  All  the  means  are  simple  a^d  at  hand,  yet 
we  see  them  not;  we  see  them,  perhaps,  but  do  not  notice 
them.  In  their  simplicity,  naturalness,  availability,  and  nearness, 
they  seem  too  insignificant,  and  we  despise  them.  We  seek  help 
from  afar,  although  help  is  only  in  and  through  ourselves."  He 
tells  us  that  it  is  easy  to  avoid  the  wrong  and  find  the  right,  that 
we  should  always  let  the  food  be  simply  for  nourishment,  never 
more,  never  less;  that  food  should  never  be  taken  for  its  own 
sake,  but  only  for  the  sake  of  promoting  bodily  and  mental 
activity. 

Still  less  should  the  peculiarities  of  the  food,  its  taste,  or 
delicacy  ever  become  an  object  in  themselves,  but  only  a  means 
to  make  it  good,  pure,  wholesome  nourishment,  else  in  both 
cases  the  food  destroys  health.  He  concludes  his  remarks  on  this 
phase  of  a  child's  development  in  these  words:  "  Let  the  food 
of  the  child,  then,  be  as  simple  as  the  circumstances  in  which  the 
child  lives  can  afford,  and  let  it  be  given  in  quantities  propor- 
tioned to  his  bodily  and  mental  activity."  Quotations  are  not 
needed  to  prove  that  the  weight  of  authority  is  upon  the  side 
of  the  necessity  for  exercising  the  greatest  amount  of  care  in  sup- 
plying the  proper  food  required  under  the  various  conditions 
in  the  life  of  the  same  child.  We  have  our  duty  clearly  laid  out 
before  us  by  statements  such  as  these  and  by  those  made  by 
men  like  Dr.  Adams,  President  of  the  Pediatric  Society  and  of 
the  Children's  Hospital  here  in  Washington,  Dr.  Rotch,  of  Har- 
vard, and  Dr.  Jacobi,  of  Xew  York — men  whose  authority  upon 
this  subject  is  accepted  everywhere  without  question. 


DIETETICS.  105 

Dr.  Adams  says  that  it  is  impossible  to  estimate  even  ap- 
proximately the  number  of  sick  children  in  every  community, 
but  that  a  large  percentage  are  ill  during  every  year  is  self-evi- 
dent from  the  appalling  mortality  among  them,  and  that  many 
more  infants  would  be  saved  if  more  attention  were  paid  to  their 
management  during  their  first  years;  but  that  if  parents  are  per- 
mitted to  use  their  own  judgment  or  permit  themselves  to  be 
influenced  by  the  whims  of  some  motherly  neighbor  who  scoffs 
at  the  present  scientific  dietary,  and  boasts  that  she  has  reared 
a  family  of  twelve  children,  and  "  fed  them  from  the  table  " 
when  they  were  babies,  then  the  physician  might  as  well  pursue 
the  "  let-alone  plan,"  with  almost  a  guarantee  that  his  services 
will  soon  be  required  to  pacify  nature  offended  by  a  supper  of 
bacon  and  cabbage. 

He  says  decidedly  that  the  food  of  young  children  is  re- 
sponsible for  the  high  death  rate  among  them;  that  the  yellow- 
ish-white, creamy  milk  that  is  so  seductive  that  the  housewife 
accepts  it  with  phenomenal  confidence  in  her  dairyman,  might 
by  an  occasional  examination  show  that  it  contained  dirt,  bac- 
teria, and  other  deleterious  ingredients. 

Dr.  Eotch  says  it  is  a  proper  or  an  improper  nutriment  which 
makes  or  mars  the  perfection  of  coming  generations,  and  that 
the  science  of  feeding  depends  largely  upon  the  knowledge  of 
what  elements  of  food  are  required  by  growing  tissues. 

Dr.  Jacobi  tells  us  that  a  child's  digestive  organs  require 
permanent  attention,  that  their  physiology  must  be  carefully 
studied  in  both  the  healthy  and  morbid  conditions,  and  that  what 
the  child  eats  is  of  but  little  consequence  compared  with  what 
it  digests. 

Dr.  Preyer,  of  Germany,  author  of  Infant  Mind- — a  book  for 
mothers— and  whose  observations  of  children  are  known  all  over 
the  world,  thinks  that  mothers  may  do  much  if  they  know 
enough,  and  if  they  will  not  leave  their  children  so  much  in  the 
hands  of  ignorant  persons. 

I  have  quite  recently  received  several  letters  from  him'  in 
connection  with  some  research  that  I  have  been  making  in  die- 
tetics and  individual  child  study,  and  he  states  positively  in  these 
letters  that  the  controlling  supervision  of  the  physical  develop- 


106  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ment  in  her  child  is  the  most  important  task  of  the  young 
mother,  because  upon  this  development  the  child's  whole  future 
intellectual  and  moral  life  will  depend.  We  can  multiply  authori- 
ties, if  we  will,  but  the  above  are  sufficient  to  indicate  the  abso- 
lute necessity  for  study  in  this  direction.  Once  convinced  of 
this  necessity,  we  must,  as  mothers,  make  strong  effort  to  apply 
theory  to  individual  needs  in  a  practical  manner,  and  ever  keep 
in  mind  the  fact  that  the  rearing  of  a  child  carries  with  it  a  great 
responsibility  which  it  is  criminal  to  avoid.  It  is  too  frequently 
our  custom,  I  fear,  to  think  that  the  food  we  provide  for  our- 
selves may  be  given  with  impunity  to  our  children.  We  forget 
that  the  food  an  adult  can  receive  and  digest  does  harm  to 
the  tender  organs  of  a  child — organs  that  depend  very  largely 
for  their  development  upon  a  proper  selection  and  administration 
of  assimilable  food. 

Carelessness  and  ignorance  at  this  period  are  quickly  fol- 
lowed by  evil^results.  Take,  for  instance,  a  child's  surreptitious 
eating  of  salt,  which  frequently  happens  when  a  dietary  is  poorly 
regulated. 

This  calls  directly  for  reform  in  the  method  of  feeding,  and  in- 
vestigation will  show  that  the  food  has  been  too  concentrated,  and 
that  foods  supplying  inorganic  salts,  such  as  fruits  and  vegeta- 
bles, properly  prepared,  have  not  been  given  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity, probably  not  given  at  all.  This  mistake  is  frequently  made 
when  .a  child's  dietary  is  being  changed  from  milk  to  mixed 
.foods.  The  relations  of  the  different  salts  to  one  another  in  the 
nourishment  of  a  child  are  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  it  is 
a  well-known  rule  in  dietetics  to  supply  them  with  great  care. 
A  farmer's  wife  follows  this  principle  when  she  gives  young 
chickens  the  mineral  salts  they  need  in  the  form  of  oyster  and 
egg  shells,  Tsirt  she  may  not  notice  that  her  child,  from  the  lack 
of  these  same  salts  in  its  diet,  is  developing  rickets — a  disease 
which  is  one  of  the  most  preventable,  yet  most  common,  appear- 
ing among  rich  and  poor  as  a  result  of  a  poorly  balanced  dietary. 
The  usual  haphazard  method  of  feeding  children  is  founded  in 
ignorance.  Investigation  has  shown  that,  except  in  very  excep- 
tional instances,  mothers  do  not  err  from  lack  of  feeling,  but 
from  a  want  of  knowledge  as  to  ways  and  means  of  guidance  as 


DIETETICS.  107 

to  how  they  should  seek  the  information  required.  Conditions 
requiring  a  special  knowledge  of  dietetics  are  met  with  in  infants 
as  well  as  in  older  children,  and  it  is  true  that  the  importance 
of  receiving  a  physician's  advice  upon  the  question  of  food  is 
not  always  duly  estimated  by  mothers.  On  the  other  hand, 
physicians,  as  a  rule,  in  their  preoccupied  and  busy  lives,  are 
too  much  inclined  to  think  that  a  mother  knows  what  seems 
simple  to  them;  hence,  unless  they  are  directly  asked  for  in- 
formation, they  are  likely  to  trust  to  the  mother's  judgment  for 
carrying  out  small  details.  In  one  instance  brought  to  my  notice 
a  physician  was  hurriedly  called  ten  miles  away  at  midnight  to 
see  an  infant  that  was  apparently  very  ill.  He  suggested  giving 
the  child  some  water  to  drink,  which  was  done.  The  child  slept, 
and  there  was  no  further  difficulty.  The  mother  said  her  physi- 
cian had  never  told  her  of  the  necessity  for  giving  the  infant 
water  to  drink.  He  no  doubt  took  it  for  granted  that  the  moth- 
er's common  sense  would  suggest  the  use  of  water  from  the  very 
beginning  of  the  child's  life,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  mother 
waited  for  specific  directions  in  every  detail. 

One  very  hot  day  when  passing  through  New  York  I  sat 
beside  a  mother  with  a  crying  baby  that  was  fifteen  days  old. 
The  child  had  on  a  veil,  a  woolen  cap,  a  woolen  coat,  and  what 
must  have  been  an  unbearable  amount  of  other  clothing  upon 
its  poor  little  body.  I  said  to  the  mother  that  the  child  was 
crying  because  it  was  too  warm.  She  looked  surprised,  said  she 
feared  it  would  catch  cold,  but  took  off  the  veil  and  relieved  the 
child,  who  was  quiet  at  once.  I  then  asked  the  woman  if  she 
gave  the  baby  water  to  drink.  She  said  no.  I  told  her  a  few 
simple  things  for  baby's  comfort,  when  she  said,  "  That  is  good 
to  know,"  and  thanked  me  very  gratefully  as  she  left  the  car. 
That  same  day  I  saw  on  the  train  as  I  was  going  to  New  York 
a  mother  and  a  grandmother  with  a  very  ill  child,  for  whom 
they  seemed  unable  to  do  anything.  They  had  come  from  the 
West.  At  intervals  they  offered  to  the  baby  a  bottle  of  uninvit- 
ing-looking milk,  that  must  have  been  cold  and  most  probably 
was  sour,  and,  to  add  to  these  evils,  it  had  as  a  tip  the  mercantile 
abomination  with  a  long  tube,  which  it  is  impossible  to  keep 
clean,  and  which  is  forbidden  by  law  in  France,  where  the  laws 


108  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

show  more  regard  than  ours  do  for  the  welfare  of  children.  It 
was  pitiful  to  hear  the  weak,  fretful  crying  of  the  child.  The 
mother,  in  her  helplessness,  appealed  to  me,  and  I  did  what  I 
could;  but  it  proved  itself  only  one  more  of  the  many  instances 
I  am  constantly  finding  of  a  woeful  lack  of  knowledge  in  this 
direction.  The  letters  alone  that  I  receive  from  women  whom 
I  have  never  met  and  of  whom  I  have  never  even  heard  are 
convincing  proof  of  this  fact.  At  the  time  of  the  occurrence 
alluded  to  above  I  was  especially  interested  in  the  attitude  of 
the  average  woman  toward  dietetic  reform  and  kindred  subjects, 
as  I  was  then  writing  my  little  diet  manual,  and  I  became  more 
than  ever  convinced  that  many  mothers  would  do  better  if 
directions  were  made  more  simple  and  accessible  for  them,  that 
they  might  understand  more  readily,  without  the  mental  effort 
to  which  many  are  unaccustomed,  and  without  the  painstaking 
study  required,  for  which  few  women  have  leisure  or  inclina- 
tion. Haphazard  infant  feeding  must  be  entirely  done  away 
with.  We  must  learn  that  we  are  ordinarily  in  no  position  to 
decide  for  ourselves  upon  so  important  a  question,  and  we  should 
gladly  follow  the  lead  of  physicians  who  are  making  constant 
effort  to  place  these  matters  upon  a  safe  and  scientific  basis.  If 
we  can  ever  be  brought  to  understand  how  little  we  know  of  the 
subject,  a  great  step  in  advance  will  be  made  in  infant  feeding, 
for  then  not  only  will  the  safest  methods  be  discovered  by  in- 
vestigators, but  they  will  be  carefully  followed  by  us  as  mothers, 
which  is  not  the  case  in  general  as  matters  stand  to-day.  Chil- 
dren, especially  infants,  are  fed  in  the  most  careless  manner, 
unless  perhaps  in  some  exceptional  instances,  where  a  careful 
mother  may  rely  upon  the  opinion  of  one  who  knows  instead  of 
presuming  to  know  it  all  herself.  Too  much  stress  can  not  be 
laid  upon  the  necessity  in  infant  feeding  for  consulting  physi- 
cians in  regard  to  substitute  feeding  and  all  important  changes 
to  be  made  in  a  growing  child's  diet,  and  equally  upon  a  strict 
following  to  the  letter  of  all  directions  given,  without  relying 
too  implicitly  upon  others  for  supervision  where  personal  atten- 
tion is  necessary.  If  this  will  be  done,  the  physicians  will  be 
aided,  not  hindered,  as  they  now  so  frequently  are,  in  their 
efforts  to  reduce  infant  mortality  and  increase  the  strength  of 


DIETETICS.  109 

those  who  survive.  The  test  of  a  child's  condition  does  not 
always  reveal  itself  upon  casual  observation.  The  true  test  is 
shown  in  its  resistance  to  the  various  forms  of  disease  so  gen- 
erally supposed  to  be  children's  necessary  ailments.  Many  of 
them  result  from  carelessness,  and  are  only  called  children's 
diseases  because  at  this  period  of  slight  resistance  the  greatest 
amount  of  ignorance  and  carelessness  is  usually  displayed,  with 
consequent  disaster  to  the  little  ones.  As  the  knowledge  of 
hygiene  and  dietetics  in  the  nursery  becomes  more  general  the 
infant's  chances  of  life  will  outweigh  those  of  death.  It  is  at 
this  early  period  of  a  child's  life  that  those  in  charge  of  children 
frequently  rely  upon  the  mercantile  infant  foods,  in  defiance 
of  authoritative  medical  opinion  as  to  their  inefficiency  and  even 
danger.  Their  continued  use  frequently  gives  rise  to  serious  dis- 
ease through  failure  to  supply  adequate  nutrition.  These  foods 
are  entirely  unnecessary  when  cow's  milk  and  cereals  may,  with 
requisite  knowledge,  be  prepared  at  home. 

Dr.  Eotch  says  in  connection  with  this  subject:  "  It  would 
seem  hardly  necessary  to  suggest  that  the  proper  authority  for 
establishing  rules  for  substitute  feeding  should  emanate  from 
the  medical  professions,  and  not  from  non-medical  capitalists. 
Yet,  when  we  study  the  history  of  artificial  feeding  as  it  is  repre- 
sented all  over  the  world,  the  position  which  the  family  physi- 
cian occupies,  in  comparison  with  that  of  the  venders  of  the 
numberless  and  proprietary  artificial  foods  administered  by  the 
nurses,  is  a  humiliating  one,  and  should  no  longer  be  tolerated. 

"  If  we  are  abreast  of  the  times,  if  we  but  recognize  and  do 
justice  to  the  work  which  has  lately  been  done  by  our  own  pro- 
fession, we  surely  will  not  hesitate  to  relegate  to  oblivion  the 
statements  of  the  food  proprietors,  which  on  box  and  can,  on 
bottle  and  printed  circular,  attempt  to  stem  the  slow  but  in- 
evitably progressing  wave  of  scientific  investigation." 

He  goes  on  to  say:  "  My  own  opinion  in  regard  to  patent 
foods,  as  a  whole,  is  that  they  must  necessarily  be  unreliable. 
They  are  thrown  on  a  market  where  the  competition  is  extreme, 
and  when  once  they  have  been  advertised  into  public  notice  I 
can  not  but  feel  that  irregularities  and  changes,  slight,  perhaps, 
in  the  eyes  of  the  makers,  may  unintentionally  creep  in  and 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

carry  their  composition  still  further  from  that  of  the  standard 
human  milk. 

"  Analyses  show  that  there  is  a  lack  of  uniformity  in  these 
foods  from  year  to  year,  and  that  original  claims  are  apparently 
forgotten  or  are  allowed  to  give  way  to  cheaper  production. 
In  fact,  as  my  experience  in  the  feeding  of  infants  increases, 
and  as  I  examine  year  by  year  the  effects  of  the  different  foods 
on  infants,  I  am  strongly  impressed  with  the  belief  that,  with 
our  present  physiological,  chemical,  and  clinical  knowledge,  all 
the  patent  foods  are  entirely  unnecessary.  The  claims  made 
for  them  are  not  supported  by  intelligent  and  unprejudiced  in- 
vestigation. Those  who  manufacture  them  are  not  in  a  position 
to  judge  correctly  concerning  them.  The  merit  at  times  of  their 
apparent  success  does  not  belong  to  them,  but  to  accompanying 
circumstances.  They  do  great  harm,  by  impressing  upon  the 
public  the  false  idea  that  a  cheap,  easily  prepared  food  is  for 
the  good  of  the  infant,  and  is  better  than  anything  that  can 
be  procured  elsewhere.  They  vary  too  greatly  in  their  analyses 
to  keep  even  with  the  acknowledged  varying  limits  of  human 
milk.  It  is  therefore  high  time  for  physicians  to  appreciate 
exactly  how  inefficient  in  themselves  and  how  misleading  in 
their  claims  are  these  artificial  foods,  and  also  in  what  a  false 
position,  as  the  protector  and  adviser  to  the  public,  our  profes- 
sion is  placed  whenever  it  lends  itself  to  even  a  toleration  of  their 
use.  I  speak  of  them  here  simply  because  there  is  no  doubt  that 
they  are  kept  in  the  market  by  the  physician  rather  than  the 
manufacturer.  The  latter  is  only  doing  what  any  capitalist 
interested  in  a  business  venture  would  do.  The  former,  it  seems 
to  me,  is,  perhaps  unintentionally,  aiding  the  business  interests 
of  others  at  the  expense  of  his  own  future  reputation  as  a  scien- 
tist. It  makes  little  difference  to  physicians  as  to  what  is  claimed 
for  these  foods  when  they  are  placed  in  the  market.  It  makes 
a  great  difference  what  the  mixture  contains  when  given  by  the 
mother  to  the  infant  according  to  the  directions  on  the  label. 
For  instance,  a  food  may  show  by  its  published  and  certified  analy- 
sis a  fair  percentage  of  fat  or  sugar,  and  yet  this  same  food  when 
diluted  for  the  infant's  feeding  may  have  these  constituents  re- 
duced far  below  the  reasonable  limits  of  nutrition." 


DIETETICS.  HI 

Medical  science  has  made  important  and  rapid  progress  in 
this  direction,  as  is  evidenced,  in  one  instance,  by  the  work  done 
by  the  establishment  of  laboratories,  where  a  child's  food  may 
be  called  for  by  prescription,  and  be  prepared  with  the  same  care 
as  is  >  ordinarily  supposed  to  be  necessary  for  medicines  only. 
It  takes  but  few  facts  to  show  to  the  educated  and  thoughtful 
woman  why  the  study  of  dietetics  should  be  spread  until  its  in- 
fluence is  felt  in  a  marked  degree  upon  the  health  of  the  children 
of  the  poor  in  large  cities,  who  now  have  to  struggle  as  best 
they  can  against  sour  milk,  heat,  dust,  tenement  life,  and  all  the 
evils  and  discomforts  that  attend  the  very  poor,  absence  of  clean- 
liness being  generally  the  greatest  evil. 

Those  engaged  in  visiting  the  poor  in  cities  where  ignorance 
reigns  supreme  reveal  pitiful  cases  of  poverty,  carelessness,  and 
ignorance.  Baby's  milk  is  left  uncovered  all  day  long  in  the 
stifling  atmosphere  of  one  living  room,  or  is  placed  with  other 
foods  in  a  sink,  which  becomes  the  refrigerator  for  those  who 
can  not  afford  ice,  and  here  absorbs  germs  by  the  million. 

Dr.  Rouchard,  President  of  the  Society  for  the  Protection 
of  Children  in  France,  says  that  out  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
thousand  infants  dying  annually  a  hundred  thousand  might  be 
saved  by  careful  nursing. 

Dr.  Jacobi  says  a  good  food  for  a  baby  does  not  mean  one 
which  simply  does  not  kill;  it  is  one  which  permits  a  child  to 
grow  up  healthy  and  strong.  If  we  will  fully  appreciate  our 
whole  duty  to  our  children,  we  will  avoid  all  uncertain  methods 
and  consider  carefully,  and  estimate  at  its  full  importance,  every 
point  relating  to  the  feeding  of  a  child  from  infancy  to  adoles- 
cence. Taking  it  for  granted  that  the  principles  of  dietetics  are 
thoroughly  comprehended,  there  is  still  a  great  deal  of  study 
required  for  the  selection  of  wholesome  combinations  of  foods; 
hence  dietaries  that  may  be  relied  upon  as  absolutely  safe  should 
be  consulted. 

Children's  diet  is  usually  too  one-sided,  containing  too  much 
fat,  starch,  and  sugar,  and  too  small  a  proportion  of  proteids, 
such  as  beef,  eggs,  and  milk.  Dernme  says  that  starchy  food 
taken  in  too  great  quantity  causes  the  white  blood  corpuscles 
to  predominate  over  the  red.  This  may  serve  to  show  to  some 


112  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

mothers  why  their  children  are  pale-faced  and  anaemic.  If  we 
want  our  children  to  be  strong,  we  must  use  animal  food  as  an 
important  part  of  their  diet,  in  the  form  of  milk,  eggs,  and  meat 
for  younger  children,  and  in  that  of  eggs,  fresh  meats,  and  simi- 
lar foods  for  those  who  are  older. 

A  cursory  glance  at  some  of  the  points  to  consider  in  prac- 
tical dietetics  may  be  of  interest;  for  instance,  cereals  for  grow- 
ing children  are  a  very  necessary  food,  promoting  fine  muscular 
development.  Being  chiefly  starch,  it  is  important  to  know  how 
they  must  be  cooked  to  be  made  digestible.  The  use  of  whole- 
meal bread  should  be  encouraged  for  children,  because  they  are 
restricted  in  a  meat  diet,  and  this  bread  contains  the  laxative 
fatty  matter  upon  which  great  dependence  is  placed  when  ar- 
ranging a  dietary  for  children.  Fat  plays  an  important  part  in 
nursery  diet,  but  it  must  not  be  served  floating  upon  poorly  made 
soups. 

Attention  should  be  given  to  making  meals  appetizing  for 
children  who  have  reached  an  age  that,  to  say  the  least,  is  some- 
what discriminating,  even  if  it  does  involve  some  extra  labor. 
A  little  wholesome  neglect  as  to  a  child's  dress,  and  as  strict 
adherence  as  is  possible  to  method  in  sleeping  and  feeding,  will 
help  to  ease  the  mother's  way,  and  prove  wonderfully  important 
factors  in  making  the  work  less  laborious  when  several  children 
are  to  be  cared  for  by  but  one  pair  of  hands. 

Another  way  to  lighten  labor  is  to  pay  attention  to  details 
that  at  first  may  seem  trifling,  but  by  which  a  child  may  be 
trained  to  sleep  uninterruptedly  from  seven  to  seven,  and  at 
regular  hours  during  the  day  when  well,  which  habit  will  be 
certain  to  prove  one  of  the  greatest  blessings  a  mother  can  possi- 
bly confer  upon  her  child  as  well  as  herself.  Dainty  serving 
is  another  important  adjunct  in  nursery  feeding.  If  the  fancy 
of  a  child  is  pleased,  he  will,  in  all  probability,  loiter  long  enough 
over  his  meal  to  eat  very  heartily.  A  cool-looking  dining  room 
in  summer,  shaded  to  rest  the  eyes,  with  spotless  linen  and  pretty 
table  appointments  and  flowers  is  inseparable  from  comfortable 
summer  life.  What  could  be  more  inviting  to  the  eye  as  well 
as  to  the  appetite  of  a  fretful  child,  who  has  probably  been  awak- 
ened too  early  by  the  heat  or  who  has  passed  a  restless  night 


DIETETICS.  113 

for  the  same  reason,  than  the  sight  of  a  prettily  arranged  break- 
fast table,  flowers,  -fruits,  and  some  little  surprise  at  his  plate 
to  charm  away  his  languor? 

A  dish  of  cold  snow-pudding,  for  instance,  which  contains 
ingredient?  that  are  all  nutritious  and  suitable  for  a  child,  will 
work  like  a  charm. 

It  requires  very  little  forethought  to  select  menus  that  will 
give  children  what  they  like,  yet  at  the  same  time  what  they 
require.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  they  desire  during  their 
earliest  years  a  great  variety  of  food  at  every  meal,  nor  do  they 
need  it.  A  little  observation  of  their  manner  of  receiving  the 
announcement  of  a  new  dish,  as  compared  with  the  shout  of 
delight  upon  the  appearance  of  an  old  favorite  that  has  prob- 
ably not  been  seen  for  several  days,  will  demonstrate  to  any 
mother  the  truth  of  this  assertion. 

It  has  often  surprised  me  to  see  how  my  own  boy  will  wel- 
come a  boiled  egg  at  dinner,  instead  of  his  usual  supply  of  meat. 
A  point  not  beneath  our  consideration  is  the  boiling  of  an  egg. 
Every  woman  thinks  she  can  do  this,  no  matter  how  unskillful 
she  may  be  in  other  branches  of  cooking,  yet  it  is  perhaps  the 
least  understood  of  all  processes  of  making  food  digestible  by 
proper  treatment.  A  mother  need  not  actually  cook  the  food 
required  for  her  child's  well-being,  as  some  of  my  statements 
might  imply,  but  she  should  be  thoroughly  able  to  direct  just 
how  it  should  be  done.  She  should  also  know  what  to  select 
under  certain  conditions,  and  be  able  to  note  by  results  that  her 
directions  have  been  carried  out.  With  well-trained  servants  and 
a  clear  understanding  of  cause  and  effect  in  cooking,  it  will  be 
found  that  it  is  not  always  necessary  to  give  personal  supervision 
to  the  preparation  of  a  child's  food,  yet,  if  it  prove  necessary,  the 
mother  should  be  willing  to  do  this  and  even  more,  for  when 
judiciously  applied  this  supervision  will  frequently  prevent  dif- 
ficulties that  are  likely  to  occur  as  a  result  of  carelessness. 

A  mother  must  also  be  able  to  detect  immediate  needs  in 
individual  cases  of  feeding,  as  on  account  of  proximity  she  is 
generally  the  only  one  who  notices  the  daily  variations  in  con- 
ditions requiring  daily  modifications  of  diet.  She  must  under- 
stand the  changes  needed  in  health,  illness,  and  intermediary 


114  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

stages,  and  how  to  supply  as  nearly  as  possible  the  same  materials 
that  the  body  is  regularly  losing,  as,  for  instance,  in  summer, 
when  her  child  loses  much  water  by  perspiration,  she  should 
see  to  it  personally  that  sufficient  water  be  given. 

If  food  is  not  such  as  the  digestion  can  master,  or  if  the 
waste  caused  by  constant  action  and  change  going  on  in  the 
organs  is  not  fully  counterbalanced,  suffering  and  illness  will 
certainly  result,  and  lack  of  proper  nourishment  will  give  en- 
couragement to  inherited  tendencies  to  various  diseases.  Nature 
resents  carelessness,  and  is  relentless  in  her  punishments. 

What  the  doctor  calls  cholera  infantum,  rickets,  or  maras- 
mus, and  the  mother  is  often  inclined  to  consider  a  dispensation 
of  Providence,  is  very  often  a  direct  result  of  violations  of  the 
most  common  laws  of  domestic  science.  The  whole  study  of 
nursery  dietetics  appears  to  be  a  vast  one,  yet  it  resolves  itself 
into  a  few  simple  and  generally  acknowledged  facts. 

For  an  infant,  whatever  is  given  as  a  substitute  must  resem- 
ble its  natural  food  as  closely  as  possible,  which  can  be  done,  as 
has  been  shown  by  expert  analyses. 

Following  infancy  comes  the  more  difficult  period  of  child- 
hood, although  not  usually  considered  so.  It  frequently  hap- 
pens that  a  plump,  vigorous-looking  infant  develops  into  a  thin, 
unhealthy-looking  child.  Xo  amount  of  general  knowledge  will 
be  of  service  at  this  period;  special  study  is  required. 

Following  the  period  of  childhood  comes  the  time  for  the 
study  of  estimating  correct  quantities  and  proper  selections  of 
food  to  be  used  in  regulating  the  diet  suited  to  the  individual 
needs  of  girls  and  boys  in  school  and  approaching  maturity,  the 
excesses  to  be  avoided  by  those  of  sedentary  habit,  and  questions 
of  similar  import. 

Fonssagrives  says  that  impetuous  development  in  youth  is 
never  devoid  of  danger.  The  period  of  school  life  is  a  most  crit- 
ical and  important  time  in  the  lives  of  children  as  regards 
adequate  nutrition.  Continuous  growth  and  development  of 
mental  activity  demands  a  complete  and  liberal  dietary  based 
upon  sound  principles,  in  order  that  we  may  supply  by  feeding 
the  wear  and  tear  made  by  incessant  demands,  that  are  frequently 
too  great  for  the  strength  that  is  called  upon.  This  fact  is  often 


DIETETICS.  115 

overlooked,  and  the  foundation  is  either  laid  for  future  disease 
or  else  strength  is  undermined  that  should  be  held  in  reserve 
for  later  life. 

The  custom  of  sending  children  to  school  upon  a  light  break- 
fast or  none  at  all,  with  a  cold  luncheon  for  the  noon  meal 
and  a  hot  dinner  at  night,  is  reprehensible  to  the  last  degree;  or, 
if  a  hot  dinner  is  provided  at  noon,  the  habit  of  rushing  home 
in  a  limited  time  to  consume  eagerly  and  rapidly  the  food  which 
should  be  eaten  leisurely  and  enjoyed,  has  a  strong  influence 
upon  the  integrity  of  the  child's  health,  and  it  should  not  be 
allowed  under  any  circumstances.  If  school  laws  are  rigid, 
remember  that  parental  authority  should  be  absolute,  and  insist 
upon  different  hours;  or,  if  nothing  better  can  be  done,  keep 
the  child  away  for  the  time  required,  irrespective  of  late  marks, 
etc.  Such  action,  if  concerted,  would  speedily  bring  authorities 
to  the  point  of  meeting  existing  needs  in  this  direction. 

Dr.  W.  Gilman  Thompson  says  many  children  inherit  feeble 
constitutions,  such  as  the  scrofulous,  rachitic,  and  gouty,  which 
must  be  combated  through  the  whole  period  of  childhood.  He 
says  such  children  are  better  at  home,  where  they  can  be  under 
constant  observation  and  proper  dietetic  treatment,  or  country 
schools  can  be  found  for  them  where  such  matters  are  made  the 
subject  of  special  consideration. 

I  think  it  was  Shirley  Dare  who  said  that  the  day  will  come 
when  many  forms  of  illness  will  be  considered  a  discredit  to 
those  involved.  As  the  knowledge  of  causes  increases  there  will 
certainly  come  a  less  ready  willingness  to  credit  everything  to  a 
hitherto  much-abused  Providence.  The  patience  of  physicians 
in  dealing  with  this  class  of  disease  is  a  constantly  growing 
marvel. 

The  demands  of  rapid  growth  must  be  met  by  proper  nutri- 
tion, or  serious  subsequent  impairments  of  vitality  will  result. 

Very  delicate  children,  whose  appetites  are  poor  and  who  do 
not  do  justice  to  their  regular  meals,  should  be  given  an  extra 
allowance  of  hot  broth,  or  hot  milk,  or  an  occasional  cup  of 
chocolate  with  bread  and  butter,  or  rusk,  between  meals.  Do 
not  listen  when  told  that  a  delicate  child  needs  but  three  meals 
a  day. 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Individual  cases  must  be  controlled  by  tact,  circumstance, 
and  judgment  as  to  special  needs. 

Since  no  mental  work  should  be  done  directly  after  eating, 
it  might  be  wise  to  regulate  school  hours  so  that  manual  train- 
ing and  lighter  work  than  is  usual  should  follow  luncheon. 
This  is  possibly  a  Utopian  idea,  but  as  the  first  hours  after  any 
meal  should  be  kept  for  moderate  effort,  preferably  play  or  some 
restful  occupation,  the  attention  of  school  boards  might  wisely 
be  directed  to  this  phase  of  physical  development  for  the  regu- 
lation of  which  they  are  directly  responsible. 

Dr.  Thompson  says  the  hours  for  study  should  be  so  arranged 
as  to  allow  time  for  preparation  for  going  to  table  to  meals  with- 
out hurry,  and  to  allow  an  interval  of  half  an  hour  or  more  after- 
ward for  recreation,  in  order  that  digestion  may  be  well  under 
way  before  any  mental  exertion  is  required. 

Relative  to  this  whole  subject,  Sir  Henry  Thompson,  a  noted 
English  physician,  and  an  authority  upon  dietetics,  says:  "I 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  more  than  half  the  disease 
which  embitters  the  middle  and  latter  half  of  life  is  due  to 
avoidable  errors  in  diet  (to  which  might  be  added  '  more  par- 
ticularly in  early  years '),...  and  that  more  mischief  in  the 
form  of  actual  disease,  of  impaired  vigor,  and  of  shortened  life 
accrues  to  civilized  man  .  .  .  from  erroneous  habits  of  eating 
than  from  the  habitual  use  of  alcoholic  drink,  considerable  as  I 
know  that  evil  to  be." 

General  knowledge  is  of  very  little  use  in  this  study  beyond 
directing  attention  to  the  need  existing  for  special  knowledge. 
What  appears  to  be  one  of  the  most  practical  phases  of  this  many- 
sided  subject  is  that  this  special  knowledge  must  be  supplied  to 
mothers  by  scientists,  by  physicians,  and  by  those  among  the 
laity  who  are  sufficiently  interested  in  the  subject  to  assist  by 
giving  data  secured  through  personal  experience.  The  science 
of  household  affairs  must  be  understood  if  reform  is  to  be  looked 
for.  Endowments  must  be  made  to  enable  scientists  to  make 
researches  of  the  highest  order.  Simplified  results  may  then  be 
given  to  the  public  in  such  a  manner  that  they  will  be  assimilable 
and  readily  comprehended  by  the  average  intellect.  Schools, 
public  and  private,  should  not  overlook  the  importance  of  this 


MOTHER'S  RELATION  TO  CHILD'S  DEVELOPMENT.     H7 

study,  and  the  press,  on  account  of  its  ability  to  reach  the  people, 
must  realize  the  opportunity  of  supplying  the  need  felt  every- 
where for  practical  instruction.  Then  all  mothers  and  home- 
makers  in  the  land,  those  indirect  nation-makers,  will  easily  come 
to  understand  the  underlying  principles  involved,  and  will  apply 
this  knowledge  in  such  a  way  as  to  benefit  all  who  are  dependent 
upon  their  efforts.  Herbert  Spencer  says:  "  Perhaps  nothing 
will  so  much  hasten  the  time  when  body  and  mind  will  both 
be  adequately  cared  for  as  a  diffusion  of  the  belief  that  the 
preservation  of  health  is  a  duty.  Few  seem  conscious  that  there 
is  such  a  thing  as  physical  morality.  Men's  habitual  words  and 
acts  imply  that  they  are  at  liberty  to  treat  their  bodies  as  they 
please.  The  fact  is,  all  breaches  of  the  law  of  health  are  phys- 
ical sins!  When  this  is  generally  seen,  then,  and  perhaps  not  till 
then,  will  the  physical  training  of  the  young  receive  all  the  at- 
tention it  deserves." 


MOTHER'S  RELATION  TO  THE  SOTINT>  PHYSICAL 
DEVELOPMENT  OF  HEK  CHILD. 

BY  MRS.  A.  JENNESSE  MILLER, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

I  BELIEVE  that  since  the  foundation  of  the  world  there  have 
been  good  mothers  and  bad  mothers,  and  so  it  will  be  to  the  end. 
While  my  heartiest  sympathies  are  with  this  movement  for  the 
education  of  mothers  to  the  highest  standard  of  motherhood, 
I  believe  each  individual  woman  has  got  to  think  and  work  out 
for  herself  the  great  problem  of  how  to  do  her  duty  to  her  child. 
The  suggestions  given  here  will  bring  forth  good  or  bad  fruit 
according  to  the  mother.  Motherhood  is  a  sacred  and  beautiful 
relation  exactly  in  proportion  to  the  intelligence  and  common 
sense  which  the  individual  mother  puts  into  preparing  her  child 
to  go  forth  into  life  to  meet  its  obligations,  responsibilities,  and 
temptations.  A  mother  should  seek  to  well  equip  her  children, 
morally  and  intellectually,  and  in  every  sense  of  the  word.  So 
9 


118  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

the  duty  of  the  mother  becomes,  first  of  all,  in  my  judgment,  the 
duty  of  the  organizer.  Now  I  am  not  very  good  at  theories.  I 
have  always  been  an  exceedingly  practical  woman,  and  never 
have  done  anything  well  that  I  have  first  spun  out  in  the  form 
of  long-drawn  and  high-sounding  theories.  The  practical  side 
of  this  question  begins  in  so  organizing  the  child  physically  that 
it  may  be  able  to  meet  the  trials  of  life  and  resist  them.  The 
first  duty  of  the  mother  begins  with  developing  the  body  with 
properly  feeding  and  properly  caring  for  it  in  such  a  way  that 
the  child,  as  to  its  nerves,  brains,  tissues,  and  blood,  shall  be 
supplied  with  vitality.  Then  the  mother  should  care  for  it  in 
other  ways,  so  that  the  child  may  have  such  a  well-poised  and 
well-balanced  nature  that  it  shall  not  come  under  temptation 
easily.  This  begins  at  home.  I  do  not  believe  we  shall  ever 
solve  the  problem  of  how  to  organize  our  children  morally  until 
we  have  done  away  with  the  family  kitchen,  which  is  responsible 
for  half  the  dyspeptic  stomachs  in  the  world,  for  half  the  ill 
tempers,  and  for  two  thirds  of  the  family  discord,  divorces,  and 
other  things  that  follow  naturally.  And  so  I  am  in  favor,  first 
and  foremost,  of  scientific  eating — of  feeding  men  into  heaven 
and  children  into  morality.  I  have  looked  into  the  subject  a 
good  deal  on  two  sides  of  the  water.  I  was  privileged  a  few 
years  ago  to  see  the  launching  of  the  great  English  warship  the 
Blenheim,  and  Mr.  Hills,  the  man  who  had  built  the  ship,  was 
a  vegetarian.  I  am  not;  but  am  always  willing  to  study  various 
subjects  which  may  help  human  beings  to  become  better.  When 
I  met  the  electrician  of  that  great  ship,  and  he  held  his  hand  out 
firmly  enough  for  his  three-year-old  boy  to  stand  on  it,  I  said, 
"  That  man  is  splendidly  organized."  Now  this  man,  as  I 
learned,  had  been  eating  from  the  vegetarian  standpoint.  For 
four  years  he,  in  common  with  other  workmen  at  the  Thames 
Iron  Works,  had  been  studying  the  question  of  how  to  organize 
their  bodies  properly  to  get  rid  of  the  appetite  for  stimulants. 
I  was  told  that  all  the  workmen  employed  in  building  the  ship 
had  been  fond  of  their  beer,  going  out  for  it  at  noon  every  day 
in  years  past,  but  since  the  change  in  their  diet  to  cereals,  whole- 
wheat bread,  and  fruit,  they  no  longer  wanted  beer.  And  I  said 
to  myself,  "  There  is  an  idea!  "  It  was  not  original  with  me,  but 


MOTHER'S  RELATION  TO  CHILD'S  DEVELOPMENT.     H9 

it  was  suggestive  to  me.  Then  I  began  to  look  into  the  question, 
and  said.  "  Here  is  a  vast  field  for  the  temperance  worker." 
And  I  began  to  ask  questions  among  the  men  whom  I  knew 
socially,  who  drink  wine  as  a  social  matter,  but  never  get  intoxi- 
cated— men  who  drink  wine,  without  caring  much  for  it,  as  a 
convivial,  social  matter — I  asked -these  men,  in  various  parts  of 
the  country,  "  Would  you  care  if  you  never  saw  wine  again  ?  " 
and  I  had  so  many  answers,  so  much  testimony,  to  the  effect  that 
wine  meant  practically  nothing  to  them,  that  the  problem  of 
how  to  cure  the  drink  habit  was  solved  to  my  thinking.  Where 
men  are  well  fed  there  will  be  little  craving  for  stimulants.  It 
seemed  to  be  exceedingly  rare  to  find  men  craving  liquors  who 
enjoyed  thoroughly  nutritious  foods,  and  all  of  the  men  in  high 
social  life  live  well  naturally.  Then  I  took  a  lower  social  grade — 
one  in  which  the  food  is  less  well  prepared — and  there  I  found 
that  desire  for  drink  was  in  proportion  to  the  lack  of  nutriment 
in  food.  These  were  moderate  drinkers.  Then  I  went  among 
the  humblest  and  most  degraded  homes,  and  found  poor  wretches 
who  never  had  had  a  square  meal  in  their  lives  spending  all  the 
money  they  could  get  for  drink,  and  I  said,  "  The  first  duty  of 
the  reformer  is  to  teach  mothers  who  have  the  care  of  families 
how  to  make  the  dishes  that  will  nourish  muscles,  nerves,  brains, 
and  tissues  of  the  body.  This,  I  believe,  is  the  first  great  ques- 
tion with  which  the  mother  has  to  deal.  I  do  not  know  whether 
it  is  presuming  or  not  to  suggest  it,  but  I  do  suggest  that  every 
mothers'  club  should,  as  its  very  first  work,  take  up  the  study 
of  how  to  prepare  foods  chemically,  and  become  so  expert  that 
every  dish  put  upon  the  family  table  shall  have  some  definite 
purpose  in  supplying  nutritive  food  to  the  bodies  of  children  to 
do  away  with  inherent  evil  and  gross  appetites. 

Then  I  would  suggest  that  money  should  be  raised  to  secure 
scientific  cooks  to  go  to  the  lowest  classes  in  our  cities  and  towns, 
teaching  the  women  who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  have  drink- 
ing husbands,  and  perhaps  the  temptation  themselves  to  drink, 
how  to  prepare  inexpensive,  nutritious  foods.  This  is  the  first 
practical  work  to  do,  according  to  my  thinking,  to  improve 
public  morals.  I  know  that  I  am  an  infinitely  better  Christian 
when  I  am  well  fed.  I  have  listened  to  many  and  many  a  dys- 


120  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

peptic  sermon  from  the  pulpit,  where  everything  was  colored  by 
the  minister's  dyspepsia.  This  is  of  vital  interest  to  all  think- 
ing people. 

Again,  mothers  should  study  anatomy.  You  will  ask, 
"  Why  ?  "  Because  if  you  do  not  understand  anatomy  you  do 
not  understand  the  relationships  of  the  various  parts  of  the 
body.  Then  physiology  must  receive  attention,  so  that  we  may 
understand  the  harmonious  workings  of  all  the  various  parts 
of  the  body.  Then  sanitary  science,  hygiene,  and  physical  de- 
velopment follow  naturally — how  to  develop  children  in  every 
part  so  that  each  part  will  be  in  harmony  with  every  other  part. 
I  shall  not  inflict  upon  you  to-day,  as  no  doubt  you  expect,  the 
matter  of  dress  improvement.  But,  my  dear  friends,  if  we  begin 
right,  with  the  knowledge  of  the  human  structure  and  all  of 
its  various  relationships,  the  knowledge  of  how  it  is  organized 
as  to  muscles,  joints,  nerves,  tissues,  and  brain,  so  that  all  work 
together  for  good  or  for  evil — if  we  bring  our  intelligence  to 
bear  not  only  upon  prenatal  conditions,  in  order  that  children 
may  be  well  born,  but  from  the  moment  of  their  coming  into 
life  look  to  proper  feeding,  nourishment,  and  development,  we 
can  insure  beyond  a  question  of  doubt  vital,  splendid  manhood 
and  womanhood.  There  is  no  good  reason  why  our  nation 
should  not  be  the  strongest  the  world  has  ever  seen.  I  believe 
the  time  is  coming  when  it  will  be  considered  a  crime  to  say, 
"  I  am  ill."  I  believe  the  time  is  coming  when  women  will  be 
positively  ashamed,  as  some  of  us  are  now,  to  call  upon  our 
friends  retailing  a  long  list  of  our  physical  ailments.  I  believe 
the  time  will  come  when  disobedience  to  God's  laws,  as  shown  in 
this  wonderful  and  complicated  human  structure,  will  be  con- 
sidered a  greater  crime  than  neglect  of  municipal  and  other  laws. 
From  the  hands  of  the  divine  Creator  we  have  an  exquisite 
structure,  the  most  perfect  in  the  world,  every  part  organized  for 
infinite  harmonies,  but  with  the  possibilities  of  endless  discords. 
It  rests  with  the  individual  whether  this  instrument  shall  re- 
spond exquisitely  or  do  the  opposite.  It  is  the  mother  who  has 
first  and  foremost  to  see  that  her  children  are  properly  organ- 
ized. I  have  stood  for  ten  years  on  the  lecture  platform,  all  the 
time  talking  to  women.  But  I  have  come  to  sympathize  a  good 


MOTHER'S  RELATION  TO  CHILD'S  DEVELOPMENT.     121 

deal  with  downtrodden  man.  I  have  come  to  think  that,  after 
all,  men  are  not  half  so  bad  as  they  are  painted.  In  fact,  it  does 
seem  to  me  that  often  when  women  talk  about  men's  habits 
they  need  to  look  at  home.  Our  boys  (I  haven't  any  of  my  own, 
but  I  speak  for  the  race)  are  for  years  and  years  in  the  hands  of 
mothers.  If  the  father  has  the  germs  of  evil  in  his  organiza- 
tion, it  must  be  admitted  that  he  is  likely  to  entail  some  of  them 
upon  his  boy.  Upon  the  other  hand,  if  the  mother  has  abused 
her  organism  until  she  has  backache  and  headache  and  organic 
disease,  she  is  just  as  responsible  as  is  her  husband  for  abnormal 
traits  and  immorality  in  her  boy,  and  she  must  share  equally 
with  the  father  the  responsibility.  No  amount  of  women's  meet- 
ing together  and  patting  each  other  on  the  back,  and  saying, 
"  Oh,  if  the  men  would  only  behave! "  is  going  to  change  facts. 
Correction  begins  at  home. 

If  we  begin  by  intelligently  learning  how  to  eat,  and  then 
develop  physically  as  we  should  develop,  and  dress  properly, 
there  is  no  reason  in  the  world  why  we  should  not  eradicate  the 
germs  of  evil.  Disease  is  crime.  Every  criminal  should  be 
treated  as  a  diseased  person.  I  do  not  believe  in  punishment, 
but  in  correction.  See  the  stupidity  of  our  laws.  We  allow  the 
diseased,  criminal,  and  irresponsible  classes  among  us  to  marry 
and  propagate.  We  say  it  is  interfering  with  individual  rights 
to  deny  them  marriage  and  the  privilege  of  bringing  children 
into  the  world.  We  spend  a  great  deal  too  much  time  in  think- 
ing of  individual  rights.  The  greatest  good  to  the  greatest  num- 
ber should  always  be  the  watchword  in  our  laws.  Every  man 
and  woman  in  the  country  who  wishes  to  marry  should  be  made 
to  pass  a  physical  examination  at  least  as  thorough  as  the  one 
which  the  insurance  companies  demand  for  a  five-hundred-dollar 
policy  before  license  is  granted.  There  would  be  some  common 
sense  in  demanding  that  the  man  who  is  going  to  marry  should 
make  at  least  the  guarantee  afforded  by  good  health  to  the  State 
that  his  children  will  not,  as  criminals,  idiots,  and  irresponsibles 
generally,  come  upon  the  public  for  support.  All  criminals 
should  be  treated  as  diseased  persons.  They  should  be  given  the 
means  for  physical  cleanliness,  development,  and  proper  food. 
I  believe  two  thirds  of  the  criminals  could  be  fed  into  decency. 


122  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

We  take  these  men  from  the  slums,  put  them  in  prison  for  years, 
and  feed  them  as  badly  as  possible.  Who  calls  that  common 
sense?  A  Mothers'  Congress  ought  to  go  into  the  lowest  ranks 
of  every  city  and  into  every  prison  and  enforce  a  good  diet,  so 
that  men  should,  after  serving  a  term,,  come  out  with  better 
moral  tendencies.  When  a  man  with  a  family  on  his  hands  is 
put  into  prison,  he  should  be  given  work  and  permitted  to  earn 
his  living,  and  the  extra  money  earned  by  his  daily  toil  should 
be  sent  to  his  family  for  their  support,  instead  of  his  children 
being  thrown  upon  the  streets.  You  all  know  how  we  highly 
virtuous  people  go  around  with  an  electric  search  light  seeking 
for  deviltry.  And  when  we  find  anything  that  looks  bad,  we  say 
that  it  ought  to  be  eradicated,  exterminated,  that  it  is  wrong, 
wicked.  But  how  rarely  we  apply  the  corrective  to  the  source 
of  the  evil.  It  seems  to  me  that  if,  instead  of  hunting  for  wick- 
edness only  to  rail  against  it  and  leave  it  to  take  care  of  itself — 
unless  an  absolute  offense  against  the  law  has  been  committed — 
we  were  to  search  in  a  kindly,  gentle,  Christian  spirit  for  the 
good  in  human  nature,  and  then  with  tender,  motherly  motives 
separate  the  wheat  from  the  chaff  and  seek  to  eradicate  evil,  we 
should  do  better.  When  a  man  is  sent  to  a  prison  or  to  a  re- 
formatory, we  should  not  only  treat  him  by  the  latest  scientific 
means  for  moral  correction,  but  hunt  out  his  family,  not  to  give 
them  charity  (we  have  too  much  of  that  already),  but  to  help 
them  to  help  themselves.  We  want  the  man  and  his  people  to 
become  self-respecting  and  self-helpful.  We  find  diseased  tis- 
sues, abnormal  tendencies,  disorganized  mentality,  much  that 
leads  to  criminality  in  the  children  of  criminals  generally.  We 
should  take  the  wives  and  children  of  such  men  and  see  that 
they  have  better  food  and  learn  better  methods  of  life,  in  order 
that  we  may  commence  at  the  fountain  head  to  improve  human- 
ity. The  women  here  to-day  from  all  over  the  country,  who 
are  anxious  to  do  the  best  they  can  for  their  children,  do  not 
represent  the  people  who  need  the  most  help  from  a  Mothers' 
Congress.  There  are  people  who  do  need  such  help,  and  you 
ought  to  go  to  them,  study  them,  and  get  hold  of  the  best  means 
you  can  for  helping  those  lower  down  in  the  social  strata  than 
yourselves.  Work  must  begin  at  the  bottom.  We  need  not 


REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW.  123 

only  to  work  in  the  individual  home  and  with  individual  chil- 
dren, but  with  all  who  are  denied  the  blessings  of  a  serene,  pure, 
and  helpful  home  influence  and  teaching. 

I  hope  that  the  practical  means  which  have  been  suggested — 
study  of  sanitary  science,  physical  development,  proper  dress  for 
both  mother  and  child,  and  reorganization  of  our  daily  bill  of 
fare — will  be  among  the  things  that  the  mothers  of  this  Congress 
will  take  up.  Scientific  cooking,  the  chemistry  of  food,  and  a 
thorough  understanding  of  our  splendidly  organized  bodies  will 
enable  us  to  properly  develop  and  control  not  only  our  own 
health  and  morals  and  our  children's,  but  to  contribute  indi- 
vidually our  quota  by  precept  and  example  to  the  moral  eleva- 
tion of  a  common  humanity. 


REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW. 

BY  MRS.  ALICE  LEE  MOQUE, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

IN  the  past  it  has  been  the  generally  accepted  theory  that 
parents  were  merely  the  unconscious  instruments  of  the  Divine 
Spirit,  for  the  working  out  of  his  will,  and  that  the  mental  and 
moral  attributes  of  their  children,  their  temperament,  health, 
character,  and  sex  were  direct  decrees  of  the  Infinite,  which  it 
was  useless  for  the  finite  mind  to  try  to  comprehend  or  explain. 

To-day  we  are  wiser,  and  have  learned  that  Nature  is  the 
great  exponent  of  sublime  truth  and  natural  law  the  Creator's 
text-book,  by  which  he  teaches  his  children  the  perfection  of 
the  divine  plan,  and  lifts  them  to  a  higher  plane  of  responsi- 
bility. 

In  Nature  it  is  law,  not  chance.  Effect  is  the  natural  se- 
quence of  cause.  A  child,  if  he  puts  his  hand  into  the  fire,  will 
be  burned,  not  to  punish  him  for  having  disobeyed  the  warning 
of  his  parents,  but  to  teach  him  that  he  has  willfully  broken  an 
immutable  law. 


124  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

The  child  profits  by  the  lesson,  and  is  saved  from  future  pain; 
but  children  of  an  older  growth,  adult  men  and  women,  are  still 
blind  to  the  plain  truth  which  natural  law  strives  to  impress 
upon  them,  and,  while  constantly  confronted  with  the  just  ful- 
fillment of  the  Omnipotent  fiat,  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth, 
that  shall  he  also  reap,"  continue  to  walk  with  closed  eyes,  and 
speak  of  a  "  visitation  from  God  "  when  their  progeny  are  un- 
healthy, malformed,  and  imbecile,  without  a  realization  that  a 
crime  against  the  child  has  been  committed,  and  by  them — 
ignorantly,  we  will  admit.,  but  "  ignorance  of  the  law  excuseth 
no  one." 

"  One  of  the  most  fruitful  causes  of  the  popular  indifference 
to  this  most  important  and  sublime  subject,  the  science  of  crea- 
tion," says  William  AVinser,  the  anthropologist,  "  is  the  prevail- 
ing belief  that  the  excellence  or  inferiority  of  offspring  is  the 
result  of  Divine  Providence,  which  arbitrarily  decrees  that  one 
child  shall  be  approximately  perfect,  while  another  shall  be  deaf, 
dumb,  crippled,  and  idiotic.  Of  course,  if  this  is  the  case,  all 
scientific  effort  is  useless,  all  investigation  futile,  all  knowledge 
a  burden,  and  we  should  simply  bow  to  the  inevitable.  But  we 
respectfully  submit  that  such  is  not  the  case;  and,  moreover,  that 
charging  such  enormities  upon  Divine  Providence,  '  who  doeth 
all  things  well,'  is  a  monstrous  error,  a  blasphemy  against  the 
justice  of  the  Most  High,  and  a  cowardly  shirking  of  the  real 
responsibility." 

Then,  if  there  are  known  laws  governing  reproduction,  just 
as  divinely  ordained  and  enforced  as  the  laws  of  gravity,  of  space, 
and  of  motion,  every  man  and  woman,  rich  or  poor,  high  or  low, 
every  reasoning  creature,  has  a  right  to  know  them,  for  the  truth 
belongs  not  to  individuals,  but  to  all  humanity. 

If  a  child  can  be  well  born  by  simply  following  certain  under- 
stood laws  of  Nature,  if  the  mental,  moral,  and  physical  condi- 
tion of  the  child  at  birth  and  for  its  entire  existence  is  dependent 
upon  absolute  law,  as  immutable  as  the  motions,  diurnal  and 
annual,  of  the  earth  itself,  or  the  phases  of  the  moon  and  the 
rise  and  fall  of  the  tides,  then  the  parents  who  bring  into  the 
world  an  imperfect  creature  are  just  so  far  culpable,  inasmuch 
as  they  have  failed  to  do  their  whole  duty. 


REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW.       125 

This  may  sound  severe,  almost  heartless  and  cruel,  to  parents 
with  afflicted  children,  but  we  must  say  it,  for  it  is  the  truth, 
that  the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  present  may  profit  by  the 
solemn  lesson  taught  by  the  past,  and,  being  shown  their  re- 
sponsibility as  parents,  may  fulfill  to  the  uttermost,  so  far  as 
lies  in  their  power,  their  obligations  to  their  own  children  and 
to  the  generations  yet  to  come. 

John  Stuart  Mill  says,  "  The  fact  itself  of  causing  the  exist- 
ence of  a  human  being  is  one  of  the  most  responsible  actions 
in  the  range  of  human  life/'  To  undertake  this  responsibility, 
to  bestow  a  life  which  may  be  either  a  blessing  or  a  curse,  unless 
the  being  on  whom  it  is  bestowed  shall  have  at  least  the  ordinary 
chances  of  a  desirable  existence,  is  a  crime  against  that  being. 
To  bring  a  child  into  the  world  without  a  prospect  of  being 
able  to  provide  food  and  clothes  for  its  body,  or  instruction 
and  training  for  its  mind,  is  not  only  a  crime  against  the  un- 
fortunate offspring,  but  a  crime  against  society  itself. 

It  is  an  incontrovertible  fact  that  ninety-nine  men  out  of 
a  hundred  let  no  serious  thoughts  of  their  future  responsibility 
as  fathers  trouble  them  when  making  their  selection  of  a  mate. 
Too  often,  indeed,  "  trifles  light  as  air  "  influence  their  choice — 
a  pretty  face,  a  becoming  gown,  a  winning  smile  are  sufficient 
to  turn  a  man's  fickle  fancy  from  one  maid  to  another,  and  often, 
yielding  to  the  impulse  of  a  moment,  words  of  wooing  are  spoken 
that  make  or  mar  not  only  the  lives  of  the  plighted  twain,  who 
"  lightly  turn  to  thoughts  of  love,"  but  decide  that  most  mo- 
mentous question  of  the  future — the  status  of  their  progeny. 

It  is  not  the  maiden  who  will  make  the  best  mother,  nor, 
alas!  even  the  girl  who  will  be  the  best  wife,  who  is  sought, 
but  too  often  merely  the  physical  attractions  for  the  time  of  the 
woman  who  pleases  his  eye  for  a  moment  whom  Dame  Chance 
has  thrown  in  his  path  while  he  is  in  an  impressible  and  sus- 
ceptible mood. 

If,  then,  men  are  thoughtless,  and  without  prudent  fore- 
thought for  the  well-being  of  their  descendants,  it  devolves  upon 
the  maid,  before  accepting  a  mate,  to  weigh  well  the  conse- 
quences, and  for  us,  who  are  wives  and  mothers,  to  seek  for  a 
reasonable  answer  to  the  question,  "  How  shall  we,  as  women, 


126  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

fulfill  our  obligations  to  ourselves,  our  husbands,  and  pos- 
terity?" 

"  When  love  comes,  reason  dies,"  the  old  maxim  says,  so 
therefore  it  behooves  the  maiden  to  ascertain  the  mental,  moral, 
and  physical  status  of  her  admirers  before  she  goes  to  the  length 
of  giving  one  of  them  her  heart.  While  it  may  not  be  possible 
before  marriage  to  learn  the  faults  and  failings  of  the  beloved 
one,  only  too  plainly  visible  after  the  waning  of  the  honeymoon, 
still  it  is  surely  practicable  to  learn  something  of  the  man's 
moral  nature,  to  know  whether  his  life  is  right,  his  soul  unde- 
filed,  and  his  family,  like  the  incoming  ship,  has  a  "  clean  bill 
of  health."  Often  maids  and  mothers  most  diligently  inquire 
as  to  what  the  man  has,  but  neglect  that  much  more  important 
question  of  what  the  man  is. 

We  believe  that  in  this  enlightened  era  no  one  has  a  right 
to  marry  into  a  family  where  there  is  known  insanity,  or  even 
partial  imbecility,  and  the  kindred  evils  that  follow  out  to  the 
letter  the  inexorable  law,  "  The  sins  of  the  father  shall  be  visited 
upon  the  children."  Like  begets  like,  the  laws  of  heredity  are 
inflexible,  and  the  child  is  but  the  composite  picture  of  what 
its  parents  are  and  their  progenitors  have  been. 

Years  ago,  when  I  was  a  little  girl  and  living  in  Philadel- 
phia, I  had  a  school-teacher  whose  life  story  I  learned  later. 
She  was  a  sternly  just,  sad-eyed  woman — a  "  scrawny  old  maid," 
as  the  older  girls  often  described  her — who  had  left  her  home 
in  one  of  the  New  England  States  to  earn  her  living  among 
strangers.  Her  heart  had  been  given  in  her  early  youth  to  her 
first  cousin,  and  he  had  asked  her  to  marry  him;  but,  knowing 
the  scrofulous  taint  in  his  blood,  and  having,  moreover,  reli- 
gious scruples  against  marrying  one  so  near  of  kin,  she  refused, 
although  she  knew  that  by  so  doing  she  gave  up  forever  the 
hope  of  happiness,  of  love,  and  of  marriage.  At  the  stern  verdict 
of  reason  and  conscience  her  love  rebelled,  and  fearing  she  might 
not  have  strength  to  live  on  near  her  lover,  who  continued  to 
implore  her  to  change  her  decision,  she  left  her  home  and  her 
loved  ones  (the  man  soon  contenting  himself  by  marrying  an- 
other), and  true  to  her  conscience,  her  love,  and  herself,  she  lived 
and  died  among  strangers,  an  "  old  maid." 


REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW.       127 

To-day,  while  we  proclaim  the  honor  due  maternity,  let  us 
not  forget  our  noble  unmarried  sisters.  Let  us,  while  applauding 
mothers,  ask  a  blessing  upon  those  worthy  women  whose  lives 
are  beautiful,  whose  hearts  beat  for  humanity,  whose  hands 
are  busy  with  the  world's  work.  All  honor  and  praise  to  the 
so-called  "  old  maids "  who  are  true  to  their  convictions,  true 
to  the  virtue  which  scorns  the  material,  unloved  marriage,  true 
to  their  own  ideals,  to  the  sanctity  of  wedlock,  to  posterity,  and, 
in  the  highest,  most  sublime  sense,  true  to  themselves  as  women! 
Can  we  not  also,  as  mothers,  learn  from  some  of  them  the  bound- 
less depths  of  the  maternal  instinct,  as  evidenced  in  their  works 
of  love  for  the  downtrodden,  oppressed  waifs  of  the  human 
family,  a  love  so  broad,  so  high,  so  noble,  that  all  children  are 
to  them  their  own? 

We  have  learned  woman's  moral  obligation  to  herself,  and 
now  let  us  speak  briefly  of  her  duty  to  her  husband — a  duty  as 
sacred  as  the  solemn  vows  taken  at  the  altar  can  make  it — "  To 
have  and  to  hold,  to  love  and  to  honor."  This  must  mean  to 
retain  by  every  art  and  power  the  love  and  admiration  of  her 
mate,  thereby  promoting  that  perfect  union  of  souls  which  mar- 
riage implies,  and  insuring  not  only  the  happiness  of  the  home 
and  the  mated  pair,  but  the  well-being  of  the  little  ones  who 
may  come  to  bless  them. 

If  I  were  asked  the  great  requisite  for  marital  happiness,  I 
should  unhesitatingly  reply,  health.  By  a  wise  and  persistent 
observance  of  the  simple  laws  relating  to  exercise,  diet,  dress, 
ventilated  dwellings,  and  other  sanitary  conditions,  we  may  all 
hope  to  obtain  this  priceless  blessing,  from  which  so  many  others 
flow. 

The  woman  with  a  good  constitution,  even  if  she  be  not  either 
young  or  handsome,  if  she  has  the  bright  eye,  the  clear  mind, 
vivacity,  and  buoyant  spirits  which  only  a  woman  physically 
sound  may  know,  has  an  attractiveness  of  her  own  that  will  not 
only  increase  her  comfort  and  happiness,  but  will  be  an  impor- 
tant factor  in  aiding  her  to  fulfill  her  whole  duty  as  woman, 
wife,  and  mother. 

Balzac,  the  great  French  writer,  declares  in  his  Physiologie 
du  mariage,  Meditation  onze,  "  A  woman  who  has  received  a 


128  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

*  masculine  education '  possesses  the  most  fertile  and  brilliant 
qualities  with  which  to  secure  the  happiness  of  her  husband  and 
herself." 

We  all  understand  what  a  significant  term  a  "  masculine 
education  "  is;  that  it  means  not  only  the  training  of  the  mind, 
but  the  equally  necessary  training  of  the  body.  To-day  while 
rejoicing  that  the  entrance  to  the  college  is  open  to  women, 
we  still  more  exult  in  the  fact  that  the  door  to  the  gymnasium 
is  unlocked  and  the  gate  to  the  campus  unbarred.  Woman's  real 
emancipation  must  be  from  the  doctor,  for  her  growth,  develop- 
ment, her  status  in  the  business  world,  and  her  highest  ambi- 
tions as  maid,  wife,  and  mother  are  and  must  always  be  depend- 
ent not  only  upon  her  mental  attainments,  but  upon  her  phys- 
ical condition.  Health  is  a  necessity;  woman's  perfect  realiza- 
tion of  her  rights  will  be  when  she  accepts  the  plain  truth  that 
she  must  not  only  have  a  sound  mind,  but  a  sound  body. 

Our  duty  is  clear.  We  must  recognize  our  responsibility  not 
alone  to  ourselves  and  the  present,  but  to  posterity  and  the 
future.  No  woman  has  the  right  to  be  selfish,  and  least  of  all 
will  the  tender,  loving,  maternal  heart  forget  that  every  sob, 
every  tear,  every  sigh,  every  fear,  is  a  crime  committed  against 
her  own  unborn  child,  and  from  which  it  will  suffer  throughout 
its  whole  life.  Before  birth  is  the  time  to  prove  the  strength 
and  power  of  mother  love,  not  afterward,  when  it  is  too  late  to 
undo  the  grievous  mistake,  the  fatal  Avrong  our  folly  has  com- 
mitted. The  devotion  of  a  lifetime,  alas!  will  not  atone  to  the 
child  for  antecedent  neglect. 

The  day  will  come  when  the  rights  of  the  child  to  be  well 
born  will  be  recognized  and  respected.  In  that  day  the  "  de- 
fective "  will  demand  the  reason  for  its  puny  limbs,  impaired 
mind,  misshapen  spine,  pain-racked  body — a  life  of  suffering 
with  blasted  hopes — and  the  world  will  not  condone  or  palliate 
the  cruelty  and  crime  committed  against  the  unfortunate  child, 
deprived  of  its  birthright,  on  the  old  plea  of  ignorance  or  the 
pretense  that  God  willed  a  defective  should  be  born — a  pre- 
tense that  is  contradicted  by  every  law,  human  and  divine. 

Every  woman,  I  believe,  must  settle  with  her  own  conscience 
the  question  of  fulfilling  the  obligations  of  maternity;  but  once 


REPRODUCTION  AND  NATURAL  LAW.       129 

conscious  of  the  sublime  task  she  has  undertaken,  once  cognizant 
that  the  soul  and  being  of  a  little  human  atom  has  been  given  into 
her  keeping,  she  is  bound  by  every  mandate  of  honor,  of  love, 
and  of  duty  to  go  bravely,  proudly  forward,  forgetting  self,  and 
conforming  not  only  her  life,  but  her  body  and  mind,  toward 
the  highest,  noblest  ideals,  every  thought,  every  purpose,  every 
desire  being  held  conservant  to  the  future  well-being  of  her 
child. 

We  know  that  under  the  natural  laws  of  reproduction  the 
health  and  happiness  of  both  mother  and  child  are  prompted 
by  prudence,  by  right  living  and  thinking,  just  as  surely  as  the 
ill  humor,  discontent,  and  sighs  of  the  mother  not  only  jeop- 
ardize her  own  health,  but  counteract  upon  her  offspring,  in- 
delibly marring  its  disposition  for  life. 

We  know  that  the  beautiful  before  our  eyes  and  in  our  minds 
is  personified  in  the  face  and  form  of  our  child.  We  see  the 
beauty  which  is  all  around  us,  and  we  know  that  God's  world 
is  glorious,  his  work  well  done,  and  that  all  the  perfection  of 
complete  creation  he  seeks  to  perpetuate  by  natural  law.  From 
the  beginning  of  the  world  men  have  gathered  not  grapes  of 
thorns  or  figs  of  thistles,  but  "  even  so  every  good  tree  bringeth 
forth  good  fruit,"  and  shall,  until  the  end  of  law  and  of  time. 

Grant  Allen  declares  for  the  male  ethicists,  of  whom  he  is 
one,  that  they  "  will  not  rest  content  until  they  have  vindicated 
the  claim  of  all  children  to  a  sound  father  and  a  sound  mother." 
It  will  be  the  object  of  these  thinkers  "  to  combat  vile  vices 
that  bring  about  impaired  vitality,  and  to  put  the  relation  of 
the  sexes  and  the  production  of  children  on  a  sound  and  whole- 
some basis,  moral,  physical,  and  emotional;  to  insist  on  the 
rights  of  the  unborn  and  yet  unbegotten  generations." 

To  the  reasoning  mind  an  unwilling,  forced  maternity  is 
no  more  honorable  than  is  the  compulsory  enlistment  of  the 
conscript.  Let  those  mothers  bear  the  palm  who,  knowing  all 
the  responsibilities  and  duties  of  maternity,  all  the  pains  and 
suffering  of  childbirth,  become  willing  mothers.  With  them 
it  will  not  be  a  matter  of  chance,  a  condition  of  shame,  a  period 
of  tears,  fears,  or  lamentations,  but  rather  a  season  of  strength, 
a  faithful  performance  of  known  and  recognized  laws,  a  time  of 


130  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

patient,  hopeful,  loving  preparation,  and  a  joyful  waiting  for  a 
sublime  consummation  that  may  indeed  cause  "  joy  among  the 
angels  " — an  intelligent  realization  of  the  divine  plan  of  repro- 
duction, a  perfect,  purposed  maternity. 


THE  MOEAL  KESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN 
HEEEDITY. 

BY  MRS.  HELEN  H.  GARDENER, 

Boston,  Mass. 

IT  has  always  been  thought  a  charming  trait  in  woman  that 
she  so  easily  "  conforms,"  that  she  thinks  and  believes  anything 
that  her  father,  brother,  lover,  or  husband  thinks  and  believes — 
or  wants  her  to  suppose  that  he  does.  And  in  thinking  of  this 
fact,  I  am  always  reminded  of  a  dear  little  Japanese  maid  I  had 
some  years  ago,  and  you  will  pardon  me  for  telling  the  little 
story,  for  my  topic — when  I  come  to  it — is  somber  enough  for 
this  bit  of  light  to  come  before  it. 

The  second  Sunday  she  was  with  me  she  asked  me  suddenly 
if  she  should  go  to  Sunday  school.  I  had  never  before  had  a 
Japanese  servant  who  was  not  a  pagan — a  Shinto — so  I  asked 
her  in  some  surprise,  "  Are  you  a  Christian,  Haru  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  said,  with  that  quaint  little  scandalized  look 
on  her  face  which  indicated  that  not  to  be  a  Christian  would  be 
quite  without  her  mental  horizon.  "  Wasn't  Miki  a  Christian?  " 
she  asked,  referring  to  her  predecessbr  in  my  service. 

"  Xo,"  I  said,  "  Miki  was  a  Shinto;  but  that  is  all  right.  If 
you  want  to  go  to  Sunday  school,  you  shall.  I  shall  arrange  it 
for  you.  What  kind  of  a  Christian  are  you,  Haru?  " 

The  sharp,  little  black  eyes  glued  themselves  to  my  face,  and 
the  sleeves  of  the  komona  spread  themselves  like  wings  as  she 
shifted  nervously  from  one  foot  to  the  other.  -  At  last  she  said: 

"  One  time  I  was  a  Methodist — one  time  Baptis' — an'  one 
time  Prest — Presb— — " 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OP  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     131 

"Presbyterian?"  I  asked. 

"  Yes,  that"  she  responded. 

It  appeared  that  while  learning  English  in  her  own  coun- 
try she  had  lived  in  three  different  missionary  families. 

"Well,  Hani,"  said  I,  "which  kind  are  you  now?  I  want 
to  arrange  for  you  to  go  to  Sunday  school,  and — 

"Which  kind  are  you?"  she  asked  gravely,  quite  ready  to 
conform  the  outward  semblance  of  her  faith  to  fit  my  pattern 
as  part  of  her  loyal  service,  but  with  her  stanch  little  pagan 
soul  not  in  the  least  disturbed  in  its  ancestor  .worship. 

When  it  finally  developed  to  her  consciousness  that  I  did 
not  look  upon  it  as  a  part  of  her  duty  to  me  for  her  to  go  to 
Sunday  school,  she  said,  "You  don't  care  if  I  don't  go?" 

"  No,"  I  said;  "  surely  not." 

"  Then  I  don't  want  to  go  ";  and  she  did  not  while  she  lived 
with  me. 

And  it  is  not  until  woman  comes  out  from  under  cover  of 
conventional  usage  and  says,  "  I  don't  want  to  do  this "  and 
"  I  don't  believe  in  that,"  of  her  own  volition  and  thought — 
not  until  then  will  she  be  fit  or  strong  enough  to  create  and  mold 
characters  that  shall  grow  into  free  men — men  who  shall  be  the 
victims  of  neither  their  enemies  nor  themselves,  because  of  their 
feeble  or  their  vicious  inheritance. 

I  am  far  more  accustomed  to  talk  upon  the  topic  that  has 
been  allotted  to  me  to  scientific  bodies,  or  to  practical  students 
of  heredity,  anthropology,  biology,  and  kindred  subjects,  and 
therefore  I  may  possibly  say  things  that  will  sound  dogmatic 
from  the  point  of  view  of  those  who  have  not  made  a  special 
study  of  the  subject.  I  shall  not  mean  anything  I  may  say  to 
seem  either  dogmatic  or  harsh,  only  earnest,  and  perhaps  a  short 
cut  to  facts  we  are  to  face. 

I  fear  that  I  shall  strike  a  less  pleasant  note  than  those 
who  have  preceded  me,  who  have  so  generally  dealt  with  ideal 
motherhood,  who  have  sung  the  praise  side  of  the  song.  My 
theme  is  scientific.  It  deals  with  demonstrable  facts,  and  it  goes 
back  of  even  the  kindergarten,  of  the  benefits  of  which  we  have 
all  been  so  thoroughly  convinced  in  the  past  two  days,  if  never 
before.  If,  therefore,  I  shall  say  some  things  that  seem  harsh 


132  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

or  cruel,  remember  that  the  surgeon's  knife  cuts  only  because 
it  hopes  to  strike  the  root  of  the  disorder.  Eemember  that  sci- 
entific facts  are  not  always  pleasant,  but,  for  all  that,  I  hold  that 
it  is  wise  for  us  to  know  them. 

There  have  been  a  good  many  kinds  of  congresses  of  women 
in  the  past  few  years,  since  it  has  been  granted  that  women  have 
a  right  to  meet  and  discuss  any  topics  whatever,  and  since  it  has 
been  recognized  that  they  have  the  capacity  to  think  for  them- 
selves, and  the  dignity  and  poise  to  express  their  thoughts  in 
public,  without  finding  it  necessary  either  to  take  refuge  behind 
their  male  relatives  or  to  become  masculine  themselves  in  the 
process. 

But  in  all  previous  congresses,  although  it  has  been  freely 
admitted  by  men  and  women  alike  that  there  is  still  much  for 
women  to  learn  from  each  other  through  mutual  effort  and  con- 
sultation upon  any  and  all  other  subjects,  so  far  as  I  am  able 
to  discover,  it  has  been  taken  for  granted  that,  since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  world,  all  women  have  known  enough  to  be  mothers, 
and  that  it  was,  therefore,  wholly  superfluous  for  the  mothers 
of  the  race  to  convene  as  such,  and  confer  with  each  other  about 
those  topics  which  are  of  the  first  and  most  vital  importance  to 
humanity — that  is  to  say,  about  their  functions,  duties,  and 
moral  responsibilities  as  both  the  creators  and  the  cradlers  of 
mankind.  Neither  dense  ignorance,  deformity  of  body  or  mind, 
ill  health,  nor  criminality  could  disqualify  woman  for  the  one 
"  sphere  "  which  all  men  joined  in  asserting  was  hers  by  divine 
right,  and  in  calling  holy  and  lofty.  Think  of  the  absurdity 
of  the  proposition!  Think  of  the  sacrilege!  Think  of  the  un- 
conscious indignity! 

Poets,  statesmen,  novelists,  and  artists  have  for  ages  untold 
striven  to  eclipse  each  other  in  the  eulogies  of  motherhood.  On 
the  stage  nothing  is  so  sure  of  rapturous  applause  as  is  some 
touching  bit  of  sacrifice  which  has  reached  its  climax  in  a  moth- 
er's love  wherein  she  has  yielded  all  to  shield,  to  protect,  or  to 
better  the  condition  of  husband  or  child.  From  the  crude  senti- 
mental songs  which  advise  the  son  to  "Stick  to  your  mother  when 
her  hair  turns  gray,"  through  the  various  phases  of  maternal 
love  and  devotion  or  sacrifice,  and  -on  up  to  the  loftiest  touches 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     133 

in  art  and  literature,  there  is  alike  the  effort  to  celebrate  the 
power,  the  potentiality,  and  the  beauty  of  motherhood,  and  to 
stimulate  the  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  love  and  admiration 
for  and  emulation  of  the  ideal  depicted.  But  through  it  all,  in 
the  building  and  maturing  of  this  ideal,  there  runs  ever  and 
always  the  one  thread  of  thought  that  self-sacrifice,  self-abnega- 
tion, self-effacement  are  the  grandest  attributes  of  maternity; 
that  in  order  to  be  a  perfect,  an  ideal  wife  and  mother,  the  woman 
must  be  sunk,  the  individual  immolated,  the  ego  subjugated.  To 
a  degree  and  in  a  sense  that  is,  of  course,  true.  For  the  willing- 
ness to  go  down  to  the  gates  of  death,  to  face  its  possibility 
for  long  weary  months,  to  know  that  suffering  and  to  fear  that 
death  stands  as  a  sure  and  inevitable  host  at  the  end  of  a  long 
journey — to  know  this,  and  to  be  willing  to  face  it  for  the  sake 
of  others,  is  a  heroism,  a  bravery,  a  self-abnegation  so  infinitely 
above  and  beyond  the  small  heroism  of  camp  or  battlefield  that 
comparison  is  almost  sacrifice. 

The  condemned  man  upon  whom  the  death  watch  has  been 
set,  who  can  not  hope  for  executive  clemency,  who  is  helpless  in 
the  hands  of  absolute  power,  still  knows  that,  although  death 
may  be  sure,  physical  suffering  is  unlikely,  or  at  the  worst  will 
be  but  brief;  but  he  alone  stands  in  the  position  to  know — even 
to  a  degree — the  nervous  strain,  the  mental  anguish,  the  un- 
thinking but  uncontrollable  panics  of  flesh  and  blood  and  nerve 
which  woman  faces  at  the  behests  of  love  and  maternity,  and, 
alas!  that  it  can  be  true,  at  the  behests  of  sex  power  and  of 
financial  dependence! 

But  when  we  study  anthropology  and  heredity,  we  come  to 
realize  the  indisputable  facts  that  her  love,  her  physical  hero- 
ism, and  her  bravery,  linked  with  her  politically  and  financially 
subject  status,  have  cast  a  physical  blight,  a  moral  shadow,  and 
a  mental  threat  upon  the  world.  Then  we  cease  to  clap  quite 
so  vigorously  at  the  theater,  and  our  tears  or  smiles  are  mingled 
with  mental  reservations  and  a  sigh  for  a  loftier  ideal  of  the 
meaning  and  purpose  of  maternity  than  the  merely  physical  one 
that  has  been  depicted  as  material  sacrifice  to  the  child  and  self- 
abnegation  and  subjection.  We  begin  to  wonder  if  much  of  the 
vice,  the  crime,  the  wrong,  the  insanity,  the  disease,  the  incom- 
10 


134:  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

petence,  and  the  woe  of  the  world  is  not  the  direct  lineal  de- 
scendant of  this  very  self -debasement  of  the  individual  character 
of  woman  in  maternity.  We  begin  to  wonder  if  an  unwilling,  a 
forced,  or  a  supinely  yielding  (and  therefore  not  self-controlled) 
— a  subject  motherhood,  in  short — is  not  responsible  to  the  race 
for  the  weak,  the  deformed,  the  depraved,  the  double-dealing, 
pretense-soaked  natures  which  curse  the  world  with  failures, 
with  disease,  with  war,  with  insanity,  and  with  crime.  We 
begin  to  wonder  if  the  awful  power  with  which  Nature  clothes 
maternity  in  heredity  does  not  strike  blindly  back  at  the  race 
for  the  artificial  and  cruel  requirements  at  the  hands  of  the 
producers  of  the  race.  We  begin  to  wonder  if  mothers  do  not 
owe  a  higher  duty  to  their  offspring  than  that  of  the  mere  nurse. 
We  begin  to  wonder  if  she  has  the  moral  right  to  give  to  her 
children  the  inheritance  that  accident  and  subserviency  stamped 
upon  body  and  mind.  We  begin  to  wonder  how  she  dares  face 
her  child  and  know  that  she  did  not  fit  herself  by  self-develop- 
ment and  by  direct,  sincere,  firm,  and  thorough  qualifications 
for  maternity  before  she  dared  to  assume  its  responsibilities. 
We  begin  to  wonder  that  man  has  been  so  slow  in  learning  to 
read  the  message  that  Nature  has  telegraphed  to  him  in  letters 
of  fire,  and  photographed  with  a  terrible  persistency  upon  the 
distorted,  diseased  bodies  and  minds  of  his  children  and  upon 
the  moral  imbeciles  she  has  set  before  him  as  an  answer  to  his 
message  of  sex  domination.  Do  you  know  that  there  is  an  army 
of  seven  hundred  thousand  defectives  in  this  country?  Don't 
you  know  that  this  means  something  to  every  mother  in  the 
world?  Seven  hundred  thousand  forced  into  life  without  their 
birthright!  Seven  hundred  thousand  imbecile,  insane,  deaf, 
dumb,  blind,  and  criminal  victims  of  maternal  and  paternal 
ignorance!  Stop  and  think  of  it.  There  are  but  three  cities  in 
America  which  have  seven  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  Our 
standing  army  is  only  about  twenty-five  thousand  men — these 
for  our  protection;  our  defective  army,  seven  hundred  thousand 
— these  for  our  destruction. 

Self-abnegation,  subserviency  to  man,  whether  he  be  father, 
lover,  or  husband,  is  the  most  dangerous  theory  that  can  be 
taught  to  or  forced  upon  her  whose  character  shall  mold  the 


MOEAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     135 

next  generation.  She  has  no  right  to  transmit  a  nature  and  a 
character  that  is  subservient,  subject,  inefficient,  undeveloped — 
in  short,  a  slavish  character,  which  is  either  blindly  obedient  or 
blindly  rebellious,  and  is  therefore,  in  either  case,  set,  as  is  a 
time  lock,  to  prey  or  be  preyed  upon  by  society  in  the  future. 

If  woman  is  not  brave  enough  personally  to  command  and  to 
obtain  absolute  personal  liberty  of  action,  equality  of  status, 
and  entire  control  of  her  great  and  race-endowing  function  of 
maternity,  she  has  no  right  to  dare  to  stamp  upon  a  child  and 
to  curse  a  race  with  the  descendants  of  such  a  servile,  a  dwarfed, 
a  time-  and  master-serving  nature. 

We  have  been  taught  that  it  is  an  awful  thing  to  commit 
murder,  to  take  a  human  life,  and  so  of  course  it  is.  Do  you 
know  that  there  are  students  of  anthropology  and  heredity  who 
think  that  it  may  be  even  a  more  awful  thing  to  thrust  unasked 
upon  a  human  being  a  life  that  is  handicapped  before  he  gets  it? 
That  it  may  be  a  more  solemn  responsibility  to  give  than  to  take 
a  human  life?  In  the  one  case,  you  invade  personal  liberty, 
and  put  a  stop  to  an  existence  more  or  less  valuable  and  happy, 
but  at  least  all  pain  is  over  for  that  invaded  personality.  In  the 
other  case,  in  giving  life,  you  invade  the  liberty  of  infinite  ob- 
livion, and  thrust  into  an  inhospitable  world  another  human 
entity  to  struggle,  to  sink,  to  swim,  to  suffer,  or  to  enjoy.  Wheth- 
er the  one  or  the  other,  no  mortal  knows,  but  he.  surely  knows 
it  must  contend  not  only  with  its  environment,  but  with,  its 
heredity — with  itself.  For  we  all  follow  the  line  of  least  resist- 
ance. No  man  is  bad  simply  from  choice.  If  you  are  good  and 
true  and  lofty,  it  is  because,  all  things  considered,  that  is  to  you 
the  line  of  least  resistance.  The  parents  of  the  race  must  make 
it  easier  to  be  good,  easy  to  be  true,  hard  to  be  ignoble  or  crim- 
inal not  by  rewards  and  punishments — those  methods  have  been 
weighed  and  found  wanting — but  by  the  very  blood  pulsations 
that  are  transmitted  from  both  parents  to  the  children  to  whom 
they  take  the  tremendous  responsibility  of  giving  life. 

It  is  the  fashion  to  repeat,  "  The  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle 
rules  the  world."  Every  one  knows  that  this  is  not  true  in  the 
sense  in  which  it  has  always  been  used.  It  is  true,  alas!  in  a. 
sense  never  dreamed  of  by  politician  or  publican. 


136  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

It  is  true  that  the  subject  status  of  maternity  has  ruled 
and  does  rule  the  world,  in  that  it  has  been,  and  is  to-day,  the 
most  potent  power  to  keep  the  race  from  lofty  achievement. 
Subject  mothers  never  did,  and  subject  mothers  never  will,  pro- 
duce a  race  of  free,  well-poised,  liberty-loving,  justice-practicing 
children.  Maternity  is  an  awful  power.  It  blindly  strikes  back  at 
injustice  with  a  force  that  is  a  fearful  menace  to  mankind.  And 
the  race  which  is  born  of  mothers  who  are  harassed,  bullied,  sub- 
ordinated, or  made  the  victims  of  blind  passion  or  power,  or  of 
mothers  who  are  simply  too  pretty  and  self-debased  to  feel  their 
subject  status,  can  not  fail  to  continue  to  give  the  horrible  spec- 
tacles we  have  always  had  of  war,  of  crime,  of  vice,  of  trickery, 
of  double-dealing,  of  pretense,  of  lying,  of  arrogance,  of  sub- 
serviency, of  incompetence,  of  brutality,  and,  alas!  of  insanity, 
idiocy,  and  disease  added  to  a  fearful  and  unnecessary  mor- 
tality. 

To  a  student  of  anthropology  and  heredity,  it  requires  no 
great  brain  power  to  trace  these  results  to  perfectly  legitimate 
•  causes.  We  need  only  remember  that  the  mental  as  well  as  the 
;physical  conditions,  capacities,  and  potentialities  are  inherited 
•to  understand  how  the  dead  level  of  hopeless  mediocrity  must  be 
preserved  as  the  rule  of  the  race  so  long  as  the  potentialities  of 
that  race  must  be  filtered  always  through  and  take  its  impetus 
from  a  mere  annex  to  man's  power,  ambition,  desires,  and  opin- 
ions* We  can  not  hope  to  have  a  moral  race  until  we  have  a 
mentally  and  physically  sound  and  sane  race.  All  immorality  is 
a  lapse  from  sound  physical  and  mental  health.  No  man  is 
other  than  his  heredity  and  environment  make  him.  The  very 
basic  laws  of  evolution  teach  us  that.  One  may  take  a  bundle 
of  facts  from  anthropology,  from  the  study  of  evolution  or  of 
heredity,  and  lay  them  out  before  you  like  an  assorted  row  of 
lifeless  sticks.  They  may  be  neatly  arranged  and  orderly,  but 
they  will  no  more  than  attract  your  passing  attention.  A  genius 
will  take  this  same  row  of  dead  sticks  and  make  of  it  a  flaming 
torch  to  set  your  brain  on  fire. 

Not  long  ago  a  great  man  who  is  successful  beyond  most 
human  units,  who  is  wealthy,  socially  to  be  envied,  who  enjoys 
almost  ideal  family  relations,  who  is  in  all  respects  a  man  of 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     137 

broad  intellect,  of  large  heart,  and  who  is  beloved,  successful, 
,and  powerful,  a  famous  lawyer — not  long  ago. this  man  said  to 
me,  while  talking  of  life  and  its  chances,  its  joys  and  its  burdens 
and  wrong: 

"  Well,  the  more  I  think  of  it  all,  the  more  I  know,  the  more 
I  delve  into  philosophy  and  science,  the  more  I  understand  life 
as  it  is  and  as  it  must  be  for  long  years  to  come,  if  not  forever, 
the  more  I  wonder  at  the  sturdy  bravery  of  those  who  are  less 
fortunate  than  I.  Does  it  pay  me  to  live?  Would  I  choose  to 
be  born  again?  Were  I  to-day  unborn,  .and  could  I  be  asked 
for  my  vote,  knowing  all  that  I  know  of  life,  would  I  vote  to 
come  into  this  world?  Taking  life  at  its  best  estate,  are  we  not 
assuming  a  tremendous  risk  to  thrust  it  unasked  upon  those  who 
are  at  least  safe  from  its  pitfalls?  I  ask  myself  these  questions 
very  often."  And  then,  hesitatingly,  he  said:  "I  sometimes 
think  it  pays,  after  all.  Of  course,  since  I  am  here  I  am  bound 
to  make  the  best  of  it,  but  for  all  that  I  am  not  sure  how  I  would 
vote  on  my  birth  if  I  had  the  chance  to  try  it — not  quite  sure." 

"  If  you  are  so  impressed  with  life  yourself — you,  who  are 
a  fortunate,  healthy,  wealthy,  happily  married,  successful  man," 
said  I,  "  don't  you  think  it  is  a  pretty  serious  thing  to  assume 
the  right  to  cast  that  vote  recklessly  for  another  human  pawn, 
who  could  hardly  conceivably  stand  your  chances  in  the  world  ?  " 

"  Serious,  indeed!"  he  exclaimed.  "With  the  world's  con- 
ditions what  they  are  to-day,  with  the  physical,  moral,  and  mental 
chances  to  run,  with  woman,  the  character-forming  producer 
of  the  race,  a  half-educated  subordinate  to  masculine  domina- 
tion, it  is  little  short  of  madness,  it  is  not  far  from  a  crime.  It 
is  a  crime  unless  the  mother  is  a  physically  healthy,  a  mentally 
developed  and  comprehending,  morally  clear,  strong,  vigorous 
entity,  who  knows  her  personal  responsibility  in  maternity,  and, 
knowing,  dares  maintain  it." 

It  has  been  the  fashion  to  hold  that  the  mothers  of  mankind 
should  not  be  the  thinkers  of  the  race.  Indeed,  in  commenting 
upon  the  Congress  of  Representative  Women  in  Chicago  at  the 
World's  Fair,  the  most  widely  read  newspaper  on  this  continent 
said  editorially: 

"  There  is  to  be  a  great  series  of  Women's  Congresses  held 


138  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

at  Chicago  during  the  Fair.  The  purpose  is  to  illustrate  and 
celebrate  the  progress  of  women.  Accordingly,  there  will  be 
sessions  to  discuss  the  achievements  of  women  in  art,  author- 
ship, business,  science,  histrionic  endeavor,  law,  medicine,  and 
a  variety  of  other  activities. 

"  But,  so  far  as  the  published  programmes  enable  us  to  judge, 
not  one  thing  is  to  be  done  to  show  the  progress  of  women  as 
women.  There  will  be  no  showing  made  of  an  increased  capacity 
on  their  part  to  make  homes  happier,  to  make  their  husbands 
stronger  for  their  work  in  the  world,  to  encourage  high  endeav- 
ors, to  maintain  the  best  standards  of  honor  and  duty,  to  stimu- 
late, encourage,  uplift,  which  from  the  beginning  of  civilization 
has  been  the  supreme  feminine  function.  Nothing,  it  appears, 
is  to  be  done  at  the  congresses  to  show  that  a  higher  education 
and  a  larger  intellectual  advancement  has  enabled  women  to  bear 
healthier  children  or  to  bring  them  up  in  a  manner  more  surely 
tending  to  make  this  a  better  world  to  live  in,  the  noblest  of 
all  work  that  can  be  done  by  women. 

"  We  need  no  congress  to  show  us  that  women  are  more  thor- 
oughly educated  than  they  once  were,  or  that  they  can  success- 
fully do  things  once  forbidden  to  them.  But  have  wider  culture 
and  wider  opportunities  made  them  better  wives  and  mothers? 
A  congress  which  should  show  that  would  make  all  men  advo- 
cates of  still  larger  endeavors  for  woman's  advancement.  A 
congress,  on  the  other  hand,  which  assumes  that  the  only  thing 
to  be  celebrated  is  an  increased  capacity  to  win  fame  or  money 
will  teach  a  disastrously  false  and  dangerous  lesson  to  our  grow- 
ing girls." 

This  fatal  blunder  as  to  the  value  of  woman's  development 
as  woman,  quite  aside  from  her  home  relations,  which  the  editor 
confuses  with  it,  has  retarded  the  real  civilization,  and  caused 
to  be  transmitted  (unnecessarily  transmitted)  the  characteristics 
which  have  gone  far  to  make  insanity,  disease,  and  deformity 
of  mind  and  body,  the  heritage  of  well-nigh  every  family  in  the 
land. 

A  great  medical  expert  said  to  me  not  long  ago: 

:e  There  is  not  more  than  one  family  in  ten  who  can  show 
a  clean  bill  of  health,  mental  and  physical — aye,  and  moral — 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     139 

from  hereditary  taints  that  are  serious  in  threat  and  almost  cer- 
tain of  development  in  one  form  or  another. 

"  Now,  if  a  man  with  an  infectious  disease  enters  a  com- 
munity, he  is  quarantined  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellows,  who 
might  take  it  if  he  were  not  restrained  and  isolated.  But  if 
a  man  with  a  hereditary  or  transmittible  disorder,  which  is  cer- 
tain, enters  a  community,  he  is  allowed  to  marry  and  transmit 
the  taint  to  the  helpless  unborn,  to  establish  a  line  of  posterity 
who  are  far  more  directly  his  victims  than  would  be  those  who 
were  exposed  to  a  cholera  infection  by  a  lack  of  quarantine.  So- 
cial, educational,  and  economic  conditions  have  all  conspired 
to  keep  mothers  ignorant  of  all  the  facts  of  life  of  which  mothers 
should  know  everything;  and  so  it  has  come  about  that  the  race 
is  the  victim  of  the  narrow  and  dangerous  doctrine  of  sex  domi- 
nation and  sex  restriction,  and  of  selfish,  reckless  indulgence  and 
ignorant  maternity." 

If  not  one  family  in  ten  can  show  a  clean  bill  of  heredity,  is 
it  not  more  than  time  that  the  mothers  learn  why,  where,  and 
in  what  way  they  are  responsible,  and  that  they  cease  to  "  close 
the  doors  of  mercy  on  mankind  "  ? 

Maternity,  its  duties,  needs,  and  responsibilities,  has  been 
exploited  in  all  ages  and  climes,  in  all  phases  and  spheres,  from 
one  point  of  view  only — the  point  of  view  of  the  male  owner. 
If  you  think  that  this  statement  is  extreme,  I  beg  of  you  to 
read  The  Evolution  of  Marriage,  by  Letourneau.  Eead  it  all. 
Eead  it  with  care.  It  is  the  production  of  a  man  of  profound 
learning  and  research,  a  man  who  sees  the  light  of  the  future 
dawning,  although  even  he  sometimes  lapses  from  the  universal 
language  of  humanity  into  hereditary  forms  of  speech,  hedged  in 
by  sex  bias. 

But  in  all  the  past  arguments  maternity,  with  its  duties  to 
itself,  maternity  with  its  duties  to  the  race,  has  never  been\  more 
than  merely  touched  upon,  and  even  then  it  has  been  chiefly 
from  the  side  of  the  present,  and  not  with  the  tremendous  search- 
light of  heredity  and  of  future  generations  turned  upon  it.  It 
has  been  ever  and  always  in  its  relations  to  the  desires,  opinions, 
and  prejudices  of  the  present  man  power  which  controls  it. 

Some  time  ago  a  famous  doctor  in  New  York  took  up  the 


140  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

cudgel  against  higher  education  for  women,  and,  under  the 
heading  of  Education  and  Maternity,  Woman's  Proper  Sphere, 
The  Dangers  which  threaten  Intellectual  and  Society  Women, 
wrote  in  favor  of  ignorant  wives  and  a  larger  number  of  chil- 
dren. A  great  journal  published  his  articles  without  protest, 
thus  giving  added  prestige  to  the  opinions  expressed;  this,  too, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  at  that  very  time  the  same  journal  was 
appealing  for  alms,  for  free  nurses,  for  volunteer  doctors,  and  for 
a  fresh-air  fund  to  enable  the  ignorant  mothers  of  the  crime- 
infected,  disease-polluted,  overpopulated  tenements  of  the  city 
to  get  even  a  breath  of  fresh  air  by  the  sea,  which  is  only  two 
miles  from  its  doors.  In  spite  of  the  fact,  too,  that  Lombroso, 
Eicardo,  Mendel,  Spitzka,  MacDonald,  and  other  famous  anthro- 
pologists and  experts  have  pointed  out  so  plainly  in  their  statis- 
tics of  criminal,  insane,  imbecile,  and  mortuary  the  all-prevailing 
evils  of  rapid,  ill-advised,  irresponsible  parentage. 

It  has  been  the  fashion  in  the  recent  past  to  select  the  ablest 
girls  in  the  family  to  send  to  college  or  to  develop  for  a  career 
or  a  profession.  Of  the  others  it  was  said,  "  Well,  Julia  and 
Maud  do  not  seem  to  care  to  learn  much.  They  will  no  doubt 
marry  and  make  good  mothers,  but  the  other  girls  will  have  a 
career."  Think  of  the  insult  to  motherhood  this  accepted  theory 
is,  and  it  is  well-nigh  universal.  Think  of  how  slight  a  grasp 
upon  the  realities  of  life  such  theories  show! 

In  this  connection  I  want  to  say  that  I  was  asked  not  so  very 
long  ago  to  give  a  few  minutes'  talk  on  the  subject'  of  Women 
in  the  Professions. 

There  chanced  to  be  present  at  the  time  a  lady  who  instantly 
said,  "  Don't  forget  our  profession,  the  new  profession  for 
women,  in  which  they  are  beginning  to  make  so  much  money." 

"What  is  that?"  I  asked. 

"  Designing,"  said  she. 

"Well,"  said  I,  "this  astonishes  me.  I  supposed  from  all 
I  had  heard  and  read  all  my  life  long  that  there  could  be  noth- 
ing new  in  the  line  of  being  a  designing  woman.  What  is  new 
in  your  branch  of  the  profession?" 

She  gazed  at  me  quite  seriously,  and  replied  that  in  the  past 
women  were  taught  but  the  husk.  Their  designs  would  not 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY. 

work,  could  not  be  applied.  The  weavers  or  stampers  found  them 
pretty  to  look  at,  but  impossible  of  application.  They  were 
the  work  of  those  who  did  not  understand  the  general  plan  and 
scope  of  the  finished  product.  Their  designs  would  not  bear  the 
test  of  practical  application  at  press  or  loom.  Somehow  it  came 
into  my  mind  then,  as  it  does  to-day,  that  this  was  exactly  the 
difference  between  the  general  attitude  of  womanhood  to  the 
world  now  and  in  the  past.  Their  pretty  and  often  very  con- 
scientiously wrought  designs,  made  from  the  superficial  outlook 
of  the  days  that  are  behind  us,  will  not  weave  into  the  texture 
and  woof  of  the  practical  life  of  the  womanhood  of  the  future; 
and  so,  no  matter  what  she  is  to  be  or  do,  no  matter  what  is  to 
be  her  profession  or  her  career,  no  matter  whether  it  is  to  be 
outside  or  inside  of  the  ideal  homes  which  we  all,  men  and 
women  alike,  long  for,  it  is  imperative  that  her  training  proceed 
henceforth  upon  that  solid,  practical,  and  applied  basis  which 
takes  into  account  the  fact  that  she  and  her  work  are  hence- 
forth to  be  a  part  of  both  the  warp  and  the  woof  of  the 
fabric  of  which  the  human  race  and  its  best  interests  are  to  be 
woven. 

Whatever  her  work  is,  she  must  be  thorough  in  her  prepara- 
tion for  it,  and  know  absolutely  where  each  line  she  draws  is  to 
lead  to  and  where  it  started  from.  Patchwork  in  life,  like  patch- 
work with  the  needle,  has  been  superseded. 

A  woman  can  not  make  a  good  doctor,  a  good  lawyer,  a  good 
journalist,  a  good  preacher,  a  good  novelist,  a  good  artist,  or  a 
great  musician  unless  she  knows  and  can  weigh  in  a  rational 
manner  the  meanings  of  life,  unless  behind  her  science,  her  art, 
her  labor,  or  her  philosophy  there  is  a  comprehension  born  of  a 
solid  grasp  upon  the  real  meanings  of  life,  its  relations,  its  pro- 
portions. 

Knowledge  is  indeed  power,  and  ignorance  is  ever  and  always 
the  twin  brother  of  vice.  Therefore,  no  matter  what  profession 
falls  to  the  lot  of  or  is  chosen  by  a  woman,  the  first,  the  most 
important,  the  absolutely  vital  need  for  her  is  a  broad,  solid, 
true,  and  comprehensive  grasp  upon  the  facts  of  life  as  life  is 
to-day  and  as  it  has  been  in  the  past.  This  alone  will  enable 
her  to  lay  a  firm  foundation  for  the  future. 


142  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

I  think  this  statement  will  be  accepted  as  almost  a  truism 
when  it  is  applied  to  what  are  generally  called  the  professions. 
But,  strange  to  say,  there  is  one  profession  for  which  it  is  always 
claimed  that  a  true  and  firm  and  comprehensive  sense  of  the 
proportions  in  life  is  not  at  all  necessary  to  fit  the  applicant  for  a 
diploma — the  profession  of  motherhood.  And  yet  it  is  true — 
and  it  is  easy  of  proof  if  one  has  the  least  knowledge  of  biology  or 
heredity — that  there  is  no  occupation,  no  art,  no  profession  on 
the  earth  in  which  ignorance  of  the  true  relations  of  things  can 
and  does  work  such  lasting  and  such  terrible  disaster  to  the  race 
as  has  been  done  and  is  constantly  being  done  right  there. 

Ignorant  and  undeveloped  motherhood  has  been  and  is  a 
terrible  curse  to  the  race.  An  incompetent  artist  is  merely  'a 
pathetic  failure.  A  superficial  woman  lawyer  simply  goes  client- 
less.  A  trivial  woman  doctor  may  get  a  chance  to  kill  one  or 
two  patients,  but  her  career  of  harm  will  be  brief.  A  shallow 
or  lazy  woman  journalist  will  be  crowded  out  and  back  by  the 
bright  and  industrious  fellows  who  are  her  competitors.  But 
a  superficial,  shallow,  incompetent,  trivial  mother  has  left  a 
heritage  to  the  world  which  can  and  does  poison  the  stream  of 
life  as  it  flows  on  and  on  in  an  eternally  widening  circle  of  pain 
or  disease  or  insanity  or  crime. 

In  every  other  profession  which  woman  has  entered  she  has 
been  better  fitted  for  her  work  before  she  took  her  degree  than 
for  the  one  which  is  held  to  be  her  especial  province.  Why? 
Simply  because  up  to  the  present  time  it  has  been  maintained 
that  a  pretty  and  childish  ignorance  of  the  real  and  true  values 
and  relations  of  life,  combined  with  a  fine  pair  of  eyes  and  a 
compliant  manner,  entitled  any  woman  to  a  diploma  in  her 
"  sphere  "  of  maternity,  while  if  she  undertook  to  fit  herself  for 
any  other  career  she  has  had  to  measure  her  life  not  with  a 
painted-toy  mentality,  but  with  the  logically  trained  intellect 
which  must  compete  with  her  brothers,  the  established  workers 
of  the  world,  or  else  she  must  go  to  the  wall  where  she  is  thrust 
by  her  incompetence. 

It  would  be  well  for  the  sake  of  the  race  if  she  could  be 
subject  to  such  competition  in  maternity.  And  did  it  ever  occur 
to  you  that  her  children  are  subject  to  it,  and  that  the  vast 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     143 

spread  of  incompetence  in  the  world,  the  universality  of  incom- 
petence to  cope  with  conditions,  has  a  legitimate  basis? 

No  woman  is  fit  to  bring  up  the  administrators  of  a  repub- 
lic who  is  not  herself  familiar  with  the  fundamental  principles 
upon  which  that  republic  is  based;  for  it  is  a  well-known  fact, 
exceptions  and  geniuses  being  allowed  for,  that  the  trend,  the 
bias,  the  color  of  the  mentality  of  a  man  is  fixed  upon  him  in 
his  earliest  years,  in  the  years  when  his  mother  is  his  nearest 
and  most  influential  teacher.  His  sense  of  justice  and  of  fair- 
ness is  warped  or  developed  then.  His  possibilities  are  born  of 
her  capacity,  and  his  development  depends  largely  upon  her 
training. 

What  profession  in  the  world,  then,  needs  so  wide  an  out- 
look, so  perfect  a  poise,  so  fine  an  individual  development,  such 
breadth  and  scope,  such  depth  of  comprehension,  such  fullness 
of  philosophy  as  does  the  lightly  considered  profession  of  mother- 
hood?— lightly  considered,  I  mean,  in  the  sense  that  it  has  been 
and  is  held  by  so  many  that  it  does  no  especial  harm  to  have 
the  mothers  of  the  race  distinctly  lower  in  development,  in  men- 
tality, in  individuality,  in  poise,  in  grasp,  in  education  than  any 
other  class  of  men  or  women. 

And  so,  as  I  said  before,  when  I  was  told  not  long  ago  at  a 
public  meeting  that  I  was  expected  to  speak  on  Women  in  the 
Professions,  I  thought  I  would  make  a  departure  and  talk  most 
fully,  in  the  few  minutes  I  was  to  have,  of  the  need  of  her  higher 
education  for  and  because  of  the  one  profession  which  was  not 
thought  of  at  all  in  its  vast  necessities,  not  only  in  the  develop- 
ment of  a  higher  womanhood,  but  for  the  race  which  is  to  have 
the  solving  of  the  tremendous  problems  of  the  future.  I  thought 
I  would  suggest  the  needs  of  those  voiceless  ones,  rather  than 
speak  much  of  or  for  those  exceptional  women  who  have  ap- 
peared and  are,  in  ever-increasing  numbers,  gaining  firm  and 
established  foothold  in  the  other  professions,  because  of  which 
they  are  being  trained,  or  are  training  themselves,  for  what  they 
and  all  recognize  to  be  a  sharp  and  severe  competition,  where 
capacity  and  willingness  to  do  well  what  is  undertaken  is  the 
inevitable  price  of  the  position  itself,  and  I  shall  take  the  liberty 
to  repeat  here  what  I  said  then.  It  was  this: 


144  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

"  It  is  getting  to  be  pretty  generally  looked  upon  as  the 
special  province  of  the  less  highly  endowed  or  the  less  thoroughly 
trained  residuum  to  become  the  progenitors  of  the  coming  gen- 
erations. If  you  have  a  daughter  who  is  too  silly  or  weak-minded 
or  unambitious  to  become  a  unit  in  the  march  of  progress  and 
civilization — if  she  is  incompetent  to  be  sent  through  a  solid 
training  of  school  or  college  and  fit  herself  for  some  possible 
or  probable  career  as  minister,  doctor,  designer,  lawyer,  journal- 
ist, or  what  not — marry  her  to  somebody,  and  let  him  carry  the 
load  of  her  unaspiring  presence  while  he  lives,  and  let  the  race 
bear  the  burden  of  her  infirmities  and  ignorance  unto  the  third 
and  fourth  generation  of  them  that  loved  her. 

"  The  fact  is,  as  over  against  that  theory,  that  if  you  have 
a  daughter  who  is  finer  and  truer,  more  capable  and  noble,  more 
intellectual  and  able  than  the  rest,  she  is  the  one  whose  educa- 
tion and  development  as  an  individual  should  be  carried  to  its 
highest  reach,  not  simply  because  she  is  to  be  a  writer  or  speaker 
or  teacher,  for  which  she  may  be  primarily  fitting  herself  as  her 
trend  may  be,  but  because  in  the  ultimate  analysis  it  may  also 
be  her  pleasure  and  province  to  be  the  wife  and  mother  in  a  real 
and  true  and  inspiring  home  life,  where  her  ever-new  and  stimu- 
lating comradeship  for  husband  and  children  makes  of  her  mind 
a  beacon  light  and  of  her  poised  and  self-disciplined  disposition 
a  guide  and  an  inspiration;  where  she  will  be  loved  and  revered 
not  only  because  she  is  loving  and  good,  because  she  is 
also  wise  and  able  and  broad  enough  to  lead,  instead  of 
being  blind  to  the  very  pitfalls  in  the  pathway  of  her  sons  and 
daughters. 

"  When  our  republic  has  such  mothers  as  that  the  question 
of  women  in  the  other  professions  will  have  adjusted  itself. 
When  woman  is  developed  and  free  to  choose,  capacity  will  find 
its  level  and  its  outlet.  Ignorance  will  cease  to  be  looked 
upon  as  beautiful  in  either  sex,  and  men  and  women  will  for  the 
first  time  clasp  hands  and  try  conclusions  with  a  frankness  and 
a  generosity  and  a  comradeship  which  will  be  a  real  inspiration 
and  joy  to  both. 

;'  There  is  a  Japanese  legend  which  says  that  when  Japan 
was  first  created  a  man  and  a  woman  were  placed  upon  the  island 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OF  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     145 

and  told  that  they  must  travel  in  silence  and  in  opposite  direc- 
tions around  the  entire  country,  thinking  what  was  best  and 
wisest  and  truest  in  life  until  they  should  meet  again  at  the 
same  place.  They  did  so,  and  when  they  met  the  man  looked 
up,  and  in  great  joy  spoke  first;  hut,  as  the  quaint  legend  puts 
it,  '  There  was  an  impediment,  and  they  could  not  marry,'  hut 
were  told  to  make  the  same  journey  again  and  think  more 
deeply.  They  did  so,  and  this  time  the  woman  saw  him  first, 
and  cried  out  with  pleasure  after  the  long  silence.  '  But  there 
was  still  an  impediment/  and  a  third  time  they  made  the  long 
journey,  and  when  they  met  each  looked  up  with  solemn  and 
radiant  joy,  and  spoke  together,  and  from  that  time  there  was 
'  nothing  between  their  lives,  but  they  were  truly  mated  for- 
ever.' 

"  That  exquisite  little  legend  from  the  far  East  holds  within 
it  a  quaint  and  true  bit  of  philosophy,  a  bit  of  philosophy  to 
which  our  Western  world  is  but  just  now  awakening,  a  bit  of 
philosophy  which  is  back  of  all  questions  of  Woman  (or  of  man) 
in  the  Professions — or  out  of  them." 

And  I  say  here  again  to  this  Mothers'  Congress  that  if  Ellen 
and  Katherine  study  law,  or  medicine,  or  art,  and  compete  in 
the  world  for  a  place,  they  can  harm  but  few  other  than  them- 
selves if  they  fail  or  are  incompetent  in  their  chosen  careers. 
But  an  incompetent,  inane,  ill-trained,  or  frivolous  mother  is  a 
curse  unto  the  third  and  fourth  generations  of  those  who 
love  her. 

If  you  have  a  brilliant  girl,  one  who  has  fine  poise,  splendid 
endowments,  great  promise,  it  is  she  who  should  be  developed 
to  the  full,  with  the  knowledge  that  if  she  has  done  her  best  in 
all  things  she  is  still  only  able  to  be  a  tolerably  good  mother; 
she  lacks  still  much  of  wisdom,  much  of  all  the  judgment,  ten- 
derness, and  scope  that  shall  enable  her  to  be  an  ideal  mother 
of  ideal  children,  who  shall  be  healthy  in  body  and  in  mind, 
honest,  earnest,  truth-loving,  and  justice-practicing  human 
beings — a  credit  to  her  and  to  the  race  as  it  shall  one  day  be. 
But  so  long  as  motherhood  is  kept  ignorant,  dependent,  and 
subject  in  status,  just  that  long  will  heredity  avenge  the  outrage 
upon  her  womanhood,  upon  her  personality,  upon  her  individual 


146  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

right  to  a  dignified,  personal,  equal  human  status  by  striking 
telling  blows  upon  the  race. 

It  seems  to  me  that  in  discussing  no  other  question  in  life 
is  there  so  little  logical  reasoning  and  so  much  arbitrary  dog- 
matism as  in  the  questions  which  are  usually  embraced  under 
"  woman's  sphere."  In  the  first  place,  it  is  assumed  that  because 
•  women  are  mothers  they  are  nothing  else,  that  because  this  is 
her  sphere  she  can  have — should  have — no  other. 

Men  are  fathers.  That  is  their  sphere;  therefore  they  should 
not  be  mentally  developed,  legally  and  politically  emancipated, 
socially  civilized,  or  economically  independent.  This  would 
appear  to  most  men  doubtless  as  a  somewhat  absurd  proposition. 
It  appears  so  to  me,  but  it  is  not  one  whit  less  absurd  when 
applied  to  Avomen.  Yet  this  is  constantly  done.  Because  women 
are  mothers  is  the  very  reason  why  they  should  be  developed 
mentally  and  physically  to  their  highest  possible  capacity.  The 
old  theory  that  a  teacher  was  good  enough  for  a  primary  class 
if  she  knew  the  "  A  B  C's,"  and  little  else,  has  long  since  been 
exploded.  A  high  degree  of  intellectual  capacity  and  a  broad 
mental  grasp  are  more  important  in  those  who  have  the  training 
and  molding  of  small  children  than  if  the  children  were  older. 
The  younger  the  mind,  the  less  capable  is  it  to  guide  itself  intel- 
ligently, and  therefore  the  more  important  it  is  that  the  guide  be 
both  wise  and  well  informed.  In  a  college,  if  the  professor  is 
only  a  little  wiser  than  his  class,  it  does  not  make  so  much  dif- 
ference. In  a  post-graduate  course  it  makes  even  less  difference, 
for  here  all  are  supposed  to  be  somewhat  mature.  Each  has 
within  himself  an  intelligent  guide,  a  reasoner,  a  questioner,  and 
one  to  answer  questions. 

With  little  children,  the  one  who  has  them  in  charge  most 
closely  must  be  all  this  and  more.  She  must  understand  the 
proportions  and  relations  of  things,  and  wherein  they  touch  the 
bearing  and  trend  of  mental  and  physical  phenomena.  She 
must  furnish  self-poise  to  the  nervous  child  and  stimulus  to  the 
phlegmatic  one.  She  must  be  able  to  read  signs  and  interpret 
indications  in  the  mental  and  moral,  as  well  as  in  the  physical 
being  of  those  within  her  care.  All  this  she  must  be  able  to 
do  readily  and  with  apparent  unconsciousness  if  she  is  best  fitted 


MORAL  RESPONSIBILITY  OP  WOMEN  IN  HEREDITY.     147 

to  deal  with  and  develop  small  children.  More  than  this,  she 
must  not  only  he  able  to  detect  wants,  but  must  have  the  wisdom 
to  guide,  to  stimulate,  to  restrain,  to  develop  the  plastic  creature 
in  her  keeping.  If  she  had  the  wisdom  of  the  fabled  gods  and  the 
self-poise  of  the  Milo,  she  would  not  be  too  well  equipped  for 
bearing  and  educating  the  race  within  her  keeping. 

But  more  than  this  the  ideal  mother  should  know  and  be. 
She  must  have  love  too  loyal  and  sense  of  obligation  too  profound 
to  recklessly  bring  into  the  world  children  she  can  not  properly 
endow  or  care  for.  Every  mentally,  morally,  or  physically  de- 
fective child  has  a  right  to  demand  of  its  mother  how  she  dared 
equip  him  so  badly  for  the  life  into  which  she  has  taken  the 
liberty  to  bring  him,  to  demand  of  her  how  she  dared  equip  her- 
self so  ill  for  her  self-imposed  task  of  creator  of  a  human  soul. 

Up  to  the  present  time  woman's  moral  responsibility  in  hered- 
ity has  been  below  the  point  of  zero,  for  the  simple  reason  that 
she  has  had  no  voice  in  her  own  control  nor  in  that  of  her 
children. 

But  with  the  present  knowledge  of  heredity,  with  woman's 
enlarged  opportunity  and  broadened  education,  she  who  per- 
mits herself  to  become  a  mother  without  having  first  demanded 
and  obtained  her  own  freedom  from  sex  domination  and  fair 
and  free  conditions  of  development  for  herself  and  child  will 
commit  a  crime  against  herself,  against  her  child,  and  against 
mankind. 

Mothers,  you  have  it  in  your  power  to  make  it  true  in  a  lofty 
sense  that  "  the  hand  that  rocks  the  cradle  shall  rule  the  world." 
It  is  for  you  to  say  whether  it  shall  be  ruled  for  good  or  for  ill 
in  the  days  that  are  to  come. 


148  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

THURSDAY  AFTERNOON,  2.30  O'CLOCK. 

THE  MOTHEK'S  GEEATEST  NEEDS. 

BY  Miss  FRANCES  NEWTON, 
Chicago,  111. 

I  THINK  I  know  the  thought  which  is  uppermost  in  every 
one's  mind  here  to-day.  You  are  all  thinking  that  a  mother 
might  better  have  been  chosen  to  discuss  this  subject  than  an 
unmarried  woman.  Ever  since  I  came  to  Washington  two 
weeks  ago  people  have  been  asking,  with  somewhat  of  sarcasm, 
"  What  do  you  know  about  motherhood  and  its  needs?  "  My 
answer  always  is:  "I  make  the  study  my  profession." 

I  feel  that  I  can  speak  with  authority  on  this  subject,  be- 
cause for  several  years  I  have  been  trying  to  supply  in  my  little 
"  kindergarten  home  "  those  things  which  the  children  ought 
to  have  in  their  own  homes,  those  things  which  every  child  has 
a  right  to  demand  of  his  father  and  mother,  but  which  he  does 
not  receive  from  them  very  often.  In  many  cases  the  fathers 
and  mothers  bring  the  children  to  me  without  realizing  why 
they  have  brought  them,  except  that  nowadays  it  is  the  proper 
thing  to  have  one's  child  in  the  kindergarten.  And  so,  in  work- 
ing for  these  little  people  and  with  the  mothers,  in  talking  with 
them — sometimes  when  their  hearts  are  almost  breaking — I  have 
come  to  realize  what  some  of  the  mother's  needs  are,  and  I  bring 
them  to  you  briefly  and  very  simply  to-day. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  first  thing  for  the  mother  to  realize 
is  what  home  should  mean  to  her  child.  I  think  she  needs  to 
realize  this  fully  before  her  child  comes  and  while  she  is  making 
for  him  the  little  garments,  and  getting  ready  for  him  in  all 
the  loving  ways  that  loving  mothers  do;  she  needs  to  realize 
that  while  doing  this  she,  at  the  same  time,  should  be  making 
the  right  home  atmosphere,  the  right  thought  atmosphere  for 
him,  a  home  for  mind  and  soul  as  well  as  for  body.  What  sort 
of  servants  does  she  have  in  the  house?  Are  they  in  sympa- 


THE  MOTHER'S  GREATEST  NEEDS.        149 

thetic  touch  with  her?  If  there  are  relatives  in  the  family,  are 
they  one  with  her  at  this  time?  Is  she  seeing  to  it  that  every  day 
the  home  life  is  being  made  more  harmonious,  more  united  in 
the  expectation  and  the  preparation  for  this  little  one? 

Then  I  find  that  one  great  need  of  many  women  is  the  need 
of  an  organized  home  life.  I  do  not  mean  hy  this  the  organiza- 
tion that  we  see  in  a  machine,  where  everything  is  perfect  and 
runs  smoothly,  yet  with  a  great  deal  of  buzz  and  noise,  and  with 
no  inner  life  principle  of  its  own;  but  rather  the  organization 
^vhich  we  find  in  a  plant  where  the  father  and  mother  elements 
are,  where  the  leaves  and  blossoms  gradually  unfold  one  after 
the  other,  and  where  every  part  is  essential  to  the  whole.  It 
seems  to  me  that  home  life  should  be  every  month,  every  year 
in  the  life  of  the  family  one  of  development;  that  father  and 
mother  and  children  should  keep  on  growing,  and  not  going 
over  and  over  again  in  the  same  old  groove,  but  that  every  year 
as  it  rolls  by  should  find  them  on  a  higher  plane  and  as  a  more 
perfect  whole.  I  do  not  think  that  we  can  overestimate  the  value 
of  an  organized  home  life,  where  every  one's  duties  fit  into  every 
other  one's  duties,  where  every  one's  pleasures  fit  into  every 
other  one's  pleasures,  and  where  there  is  some  underlying 
plan. 

In  the  kindergarten  we  do  not  go  on  from  week  to  week  and 
month  to  month  without  an  organized  plan,  and  I  believe  that 
many  mothers  would  find  it  far  easier  if  they  had  a  plan  under- 
lying their  life  with  the  child.  I  do  not  mean  by  this  some- 
thing like  a  pattern  to  which  they  must  fit  their  child,  but  rather 
something  which  they  can  fit  to  him  as  he  grows  as  they  fit  his 
clothes  to  him.  The  mother,  living  so  closely  with  her  child, 
can  see  what  sort  of  atmosphere  he  needs,  mentally  and  morally, 
as  well  as  physically,  and  she  should  plan  to  have  it. 

Another  thing  which  I  think  a  mother  needs  almost  more 
than  anything  else  is  the  sympathetic  co-operation  of  her  hus- 
band. I  have  said  this  before,  and  women  have  asked,  "  How 
are  you  going  to  get  it?  If  your  husband  does  not  sympathize 
with  you,  doesn't  care  for  the  children,  nor  for  what  you  are 
trying  to  do,  how  are  you  going  to  help  it  ?  "  I  frankly  confess 

that  I  do  not  know,  but  I  believe  this,  that  a  woman  never  yet 
11 


150  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

set  out  to  get  something  which  she  wanted  and  was  determined 
to  have  and  failed  to  get  it.  And  I  believe  this,  also,  that  if  a 
man  loves  his  wife  when  he  marries  her,  and  does  not  sympa- 
thize with  her,  or  is  not  just  as  interested  in  the  children  when 
they  come,  and  in  their  education  and  all  that  belongs  to  them, 
it  is  largely  her  fault.  I  have  had  no  experience  in  the  matter 
of  husbands,  but  I  have  had  a  father,  I  have  a  brother,  and  I  do 
know,  from  experience  in  homes  where  the  women  have  tact 
and  love  and  patience,  that  the  men  can  be  made  interested  in 
anything  in  which  the  women  are  vitally  interested.  I  do  not 
believe  that  a  mother  can  do  all  that  a  mother  should  do,  or 
that  should  be  done  for  the  child,  without  the  co-operation  of 
her  husband. 

I  recall  a  story:  A  mother  eagle  had  broken  her  wing,  but 
one  day,  when  danger  came  to  her  little  ones,  she,  forgetting 
her  pain  and  inability,  bravely  struggled  to  rescue  them,  to  fly 
away  with  them  on  her  back,  but  she  found  that  she  could  not 
do  it;  she  needed  both  wings.  The  family  life  is  like  the  eagle, 
one  wing  representing  the  father  and  the  other  wing  represent- 
ing the  mother;  it  takes  both  wings  with  which  to  fly. 

Another  thing  which  the  mothers  need,  and  this  need  I  have 
met  oftener  than  with  any  other.  It  is  the  need  to  live  sympa- 
thetically with  the  children.  A  great  many  mothers  live  for 
the  children.  They  boast  that  they  have  lived  for  their  chil- 
dren, when  perhaps  they  have  never  lived  one  day  with  them. 

In  my  experiences  in  my  little  kindergarten  I  have  learned 
that  the  more  I  can  enter  into  the  life  of  the  child — live  through 
his  experiences  with  him,  feel  just  as  he  feels  about  the  things 
which  come  to  him — the  more  successful  I  have  been,  the  better 
I  have  understood  him,  and  the  more  quickly  has  he  responded 
to  my  thought.  The  mothers  of  to-day,  many  of  them,  estrange 
their  children;  they  are  too  busy  or  are  too  dignified  to  sit  on 
the  floor  and  play  with  their  children.  I  heard  of  a  mother 
the  other  day  who  sent  word  to  the  kindergarten  that  she  did 
not  wish  her  child  to  sit  on  the  floor,  for  she  would  then  be  apt 
to  grow  up  undignified,  and  she  did  not  wish  so  dreadful  a 
calamity  to  befall  her.  I  wish  that  mother  was  obliged  to  go  to 
a  kindergarten  for  a  whole  year;  I  think  she  would  learn  to  sit, 


THE  MOTHER'S  GREATEST  NEEDS.        151 

on  the  floor,  to  do  it  gracefully,  to  enjoy  it,  and  to  be  a  better 
woman  for  it. 

I  miss  so  much  this  sense  of  "  togetherness  "  in  the  homes 
that  I  know,  and  I  often  meet  with  the  sense  of  condescension 
on  the  part  of  the  adult  members  of  the  family. 

It  is  one  of  the  mother's  greatest  needs  to  live  with  her  child, 
not  only  for  the  sake  of  the  child,  but  perhaps  even  more  for 
her  own  sake,  because  she  can  not  live  with  him  without  becom- 
ing like  a  little  child;  and  you  know  what  He  said — that  we  can 
not  enter  into  heaven  until  we  become  like  a  little  child.  Heaven 
does  not  necessarily  mean  a  place  afar  off  or  a  time  far  away,  but 
here  and  now — any  place  where  harmony  exists  and  love  abides. 
There  is  no  way — there  is  actually  no  way — of  becoming  like  a 
little  child  except  by  living  with  him. 

I  have  also  noticed  that  mothers  need  very  much  the  love 
that  frees  in  place  of  that  love  which  binds  and  kills.  I  know, 
and  you  know,  more  than  one  young  man  or  young  woman — or, 
perhaps,  a  man  or  woman  no  longer  young — who  is  still  bound, 
still  a  slave  to  the  father  or  mother,  or  to  the  weakness,  the 
dependence  which  the  father  or  mother  cultivated  in  the  name  of 
love.  They  seem  to  have  no  self-reliance,  no  power  of  decision, 
no  readiness  to  make  a  choice;  whenever  and  wherever  they  can 
do  so  they  lean;  they  have  not  been  made  free;  they  have  not 
been  allowed  to  choose.  Children  respond  quickly  to  the  right 
if  they  have  freedom  of  choice.  Not  long  ago  a  little  boy  came 
to  the  kindergarten  one  morning  who,  ever  since  last  fall,  each 
morning  that  he  came,  had  cried  because  his  mother  would  not 
stay  with  him.  She  had  brought  him  faithfully  every  day,  and 
every  day  he  had  cried  when  she  left.  Every  day  it  had  been 
my  duty  as  soon  as  he  arrived  to  take  him  into  my  lap  and  com- 
fort him  until  the  mother  was  out  of  sight,  when  he  would  be- 
come quiet  and  happy.  On  this  particular  morning  to  which  I 
refer  it  seemed  to  me  that  the  old  custom  had  gone  on  long 
enough.  I  met  him  on  the  stairs  where  he  stood  crying  at  the 
top  of  his  voice;  instead  of  trying  to  comfort  and  hush  him,  I 
said:  "My  dear,  do  you  wish  to  cry  this  morning?  If  you  do, 
we  will  stop  our  work  until  you  have  finished;  we  will  neither 
sing,  nor  talk,  nor  tell  stories  until  you  get  all  through.  Now, 


152  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

dear,  if  you  wish  to  cry,  you  may."  And  I  sat  down  and  folded 
ray  hands,  and  all  the  children  waited.  He  felt  perfectly  free 
to  cry  and  to  make  us  all  uncomfortable,  but  he  did  not  seem  to 
want  to;  he  suddenly  ceased,  and  he  never  has  cried  in  kinder- 
garten since. 

I  have  another  little  boy  who  is  fortunate — or  unfortunate, 
it  seems  to  me  in  this  case — in  being  an  only  son  and  the  young- 
est child.  He  has  several  older  sisters,  most  of  them  grown  to 
young  womanhood.  He  is  a  beautiful  child,  and  the  idol  in  his 
family.  They  never  speak  to  him  without  calling  him  by  some 
pet  name,  but  never  since  his  birth  has  he  been  held  a  free  spirit. 
He  was  feeble-looking.  At  first  I  could  not  understand  his  de- 
bilitated condition.  It  seemed  to  be  a  case  of  "  arrested  develop- 
ment," and  sometimes  I  was  afraid  that  he  would  never  be  in 
normal  condition.  I  began  to  know  the  family  better,  and  then 
to  realize  what  the  trouble  was;  we  took  special  pains  to  make  him 
feel  perfectly  free  in  the  kindergarten,  free  to  do  exactly  that 
which  he  chose  to  do,  unless  he  was  interfering  with  the  com- 
fort and  happiness  of  somebody  else,  free  to  choose  to  go  out  of 
the  room  or  to  cease  whatever  he  was  doing.  Sometimes  he 
would  choose  to  stay,  sometimes  to  go  out,  but  he  felt  perfectly 
free,  and  our  reward  has  come  at  last  after  two  years  of  devoted 
work  with  him.  During  the  past  few  weeks  he  has  been  a  joy 
and  a  delight  to  us.  He  has  rapidly  and  sweetly  unfolded;  all 
his  work,  as  well  as  his  living,  now  expresses  freedom  and  con- 
trol. When  his  mother  or  an  elder  sister  comes  into  the  kinder- 
garten, however,  we  notice  the  difference;  he  is  not  himself  at 
all.  He  still  has  that  sense  of  being  bound  by  them,  by  their 
thought  of  him  as  being  a  pet  and  plaything  instead  of  an  indi- 
vidual with  rights  of  his  own. 

Dr.  Henry  James  said,  in  one  of  his  memorable  talks,  it  is 
great  to  le  the  imitable  thing.  Mothers  may  try  to  do  the  imita- 
ble  thing;  the  mother  may  prayerfully  hold  herself  to  some  lofty 
ideal;  but  if  she  be  not  the  imitable  thing,  some  day  she  will 
forget,  and  when  she  is  not  thinking  she  will  do  the  thing  she 
would  rather  the  child  would  not  do,  and  that  is  the  very  thing 
he  will  be  apt  to  imitate.  So  the  only  safe  thing  is  for  the  mother 
to  know  that  which  she  wishes  her  child  to  be  and  do.  If  it  is 


THE  MOTHER'S  GREATEST  NEEDS.        153 

perfection,  then  must  she  strive  to  be  perfect — to  have  that  inner 
spiritual  perfection  which  is  the  only  safeguard  against  mistakes. 
Her  child  will  feel  it,  he  will  imitate  it  no  matter  what  she  says 
to  him.  You  know  what  Emerson  says:  "  Do  not  talk  to  me. 
What  you  are  thunders  so  loudly  in  my  ears  that  I  can  not  hear 
what  you  say."  The  children  feel  what  you  are,  and  will  copy 
that  which  you  do. 

I  wish  just  for  a  moment  to  speak  of  one  other  need.  It  was 
touched  upon  so  beautifully  this  morning  by  Mrs.  Booth.  It  is 
of  that  love  about  which  she  talked,  which  is  the  philosophy  of 
all  things — the  love  which  she  expressed  in  her  own  face  and 
attitude  and  words  to  us,  until  this  place  seemed  radiant  with 
it.  Do  you  remember  that  she  said  the  truest  way  in  which  we 
can  help  our  children  is  to  love  the  children  that  belong  to  other 
people?  Perhaps  they  are  the  children  in  the  back  alley,  the 
children  down  in  the  slums,  but  they  should  be  loved  for  them- 
selves and  with  our  own  boys  and  girls.  The  only  way  to  do 
this,  I  am  sure,  is  just  to  think  (I  know  how  almost  impossible 
this  must  be  for  a  mother,  yet  I  do  believe  that  it  is  something 
every  mother  must  strive  for)  of  her  child  not  as  her  own,  belong- 
ing solely  to  her,  but  as  belonging  to  the  world.  They  all  belong 
to  us — they  all  belong  to  me.  We  have  a  right  to  ask  and  a 
duty  to  assist  each  child  to  be  all  that  a  good  man  should  be. 
We  should  earnestly  ask  and  expect  this  thing  of  each  other;  we 
should  hold  ourselves  up  to  the  high  ideal  that  we  belong  to 
each  other.  Your  children  belong  to  me,  to  the  neighbors,  to 
everybody  else,  to  every  one  with  whom  they  come  in  touch. 
You  can  not  keep  them  to  yourself;  you  can  not  keep  them 
within  the  narrow  home  circle — they  belong  to  the  world,  and 
they  should  be  so  taught.  They  are  only  lent  to  you  to  care  for, 
to  help,  until  they  can  stand  on  their  own  feet  and  live  their 
own  lives  independently  of  you.  That  sense  of  ownership  which 
so  many  mothers  seem  to  express,  and  for  which  we  can  not 
altogether  blame  them,  is  deplorable;  it  must  not  be  excused 
because  it  does  not  give  to  the  children  that  larger  sense  of  be- 
longing to  the  world. 

That  sense  of  ownership  which  will  say  to  a  child,  "  Well,  I 
am  your  mother,  and  therefore  you  must  do  this  thing;  I  am  your 


154  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

mother,  and  therefore  I  have  a  right  to  ask  this  thing  of  you,"  is 
just  as  wrong  in  the  sight  of  God  as  any  other  sort  of  slavery. 
Obedience  is  not  true  obedience,  service  is  not  true  service  unless 
there  is  back  of  it  the  sense  of  freedom  and  the  guided  will. 
We  have  no  right  to  ask  another  human  being,  no  matter  how 
young,  to  do  a  thing  which  is  solely  our  personal  wish  or  desire, 
and  does  not  lead  to  that  universal  sense  of  obligation  to  the 
whole. 

Every  child  can  be  taught  right  relationships  before  he 
leaves  the  nursery.  I  presume  that  in  every  home  represented 
here  to-day  there  is  at  least  one  servant.  The  child  gets  his  first 
lesson  in  the  social  questions  of  the  day  in  the  nursery.  He  is 
unconsciously  asking  himself:  "  What  is  my  mother's  relation  to 
that  woman?  Is  she  her  friend?  Is  she  kind  to  her,  or  is  she 
imperious  or  commanding?  "  Of  course,  whatever  she  is  that 
he  will  be.  He  draws  conclusions  also.  "  That  woman  belongs  to 
another  grade  of  life.  She  is  different  from  me.  I  do  not  need 
to  treat  her  as  I  do  mother's  friends." 

These  are  only  a  few  of  a  mother's  needs,  but  they  are  those 
with  which  I  have  come  in  contact  perhaps  more  than  any  others, 
and  they  are  vital.  But  we  know,  if  we  feel  a  great  lack,  where 
to  go.  There  is  not  a  Christian  woman  here  who  does  not  know 
where  to  go.  There  is  not  a  Christian  woman  here  who  pre- 
sumably did  not  have  a  mother  who  prayed  for  her  and  with 
her,  who  can  not  remember  the  Sunday  afternoons  when  the 
mother  would  gather  her  little  ones  about  her  in  the  stately, 
old-fashioned  parlor  and  have  the  little  prayer  time  together.  I 
feel  (if  I  may  be  personal  just  for  a  moment)  that  nothing — 
nothing — can  ever  be  to  me  what  the  memory  of  those  Sunday 
afternoons  is.  But  then,  after  all,  dear  friends,  we  know  that 
ideally  we  have  no  need,  because  we  are  "  complete  in  Him." 


PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  155 


PLAYGKOUNDS  IN  CITIES. 

BY  Miss  CONSTANCE  MACKENZIE, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

IN  order  to  understand  a  movement,  to  estimate  its  results, 
its  tendencies,  and  its  possibilities,  it  is  necessary  to  know  its 
history. 

I  purpose  in  to-day's  paper  to  sketch  briefly  the  growth  of 
the  summer  playground  in  the  United  States,  its  origin,  the 
work  it  has  thus  far  done,  and,  in  the  light  of  its  past,  the  good 
it  may  be  expected  to  accomplish  in  the  day — now,  I  believe,  not 
so  remote — when  the  playground  will  be  considered  as  vital 
a  necessity  in  a  city  as  the  kindergarten  is  regarded  at  the  pres- 
ent day. 

The  short  annals  of  the  playground  in  the  United  States 
record  the  names  of  four  pioneer  cities:  Boston  opened  play- 
grounds in  1886;  New  York,  in  1891;  Providence,  in  1894; 
Philadelphia,  in  1895. 

The  first  summer  playground  in  the  United  States  of  which 
I  can  find  any  note  was  opened  in  Boston  in  the  summer  of 
1886.  It  and  its  two  contemporaries  were  literally  builded  upon 
sand,  for  they  began  from  a  suggestion  made  by  Dr.  Marie 
Zarzewska  about  sand-heaps  for  children.  Opened  first  in  the 
yards  of  mission  schools,  later  in  the  public  school  yards,  they 
were  located  only  in  the  congested  parts  of  the  city  and  in  yards 
whose  adjacent  buildings  afforded  shade.  They  are  under  the 
charge  of  the  Massachusetts  Emergency  and  Hygiene  Commit- 
tee, and  immediately  in  the  care  of  the  Committee  on  Play- 
grounds, whose  chairman,  Miss  Ella  M.  Tower,  has  been  the 
active  power  in  association  with  the  direction  of  the  yards  from 
the  beginning. 

In  June,  1891,  the  Park  Commissioners  put  under  the  charge 
of  this  association  the  Charlesbank  Women's  Gymnasium  and 
Children's  Playground,  under  the  chairmanship  of  Mrs.  Kate 
Gannett  Wells.  Boston's  playgrounds  are  therefore  sustained 


156  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

partly  by  private  enterprise  and  partly  by  public  moneys,  al- 
though the  direction  of  all  of  them  is  in  the  hands  of  an  associ- 
ation of  citizens. 

"  In  New  York  public  playgrounds  have  been  in  desultory 
operation  to  a  most  limited  extent  four  or  five  years/'  writes 
Mr.  Jacob  A.  Kiis,  whose  valuable  article  on  Playgrounds  for 
City  Schools,  which  appeared  in  volume  Ixviii  of  Harper's  Maga- 
zine, had  undoubtedly  an  important  part  to  play  in  drawing  at- 
tention to  the  moral  as  well  as  physical  necessity  of  room  for 
school  children  for  their  periods  of  recreation.  "  School  play- 
grounds (outdoor)  were  ordered  for  all  new  schools  by  the  Legis- 
lature of  1895,  which  also  directed  that  all  small  parks  hereafter 
laid  out  shall  have  children's  playgrounds  attached.  The  Park 
Department  has  this  year  consented  to  try  the  '  sandhill '  plan 
in  some  of  our  smaller  parks." 

The  Public  Playground  Societj7 — chairman,  Hon.  Abram  S. 
Hewitt — has  charge  of  one  playground  in  some  vacant  lots. 
Several  yards  were  maintained  for  awhile  and  then  given  up. 
Last  year  one  was  kept  open  successfully  by  Miss  Grace  H.  Dodge 
and  some  of  her  friends.  The  East  Side  House  Settlement  has 
also  a  flourishing  playground  in  operation. 

New  York  playgrounds,  it  will  thus  be  seen,  are  in  part  under 
public,  in  part  under  private  auspices. 

The  work  in  Providence  began  in  the  summer  of  1894.  It 
is  under  the  management  of  the  Joint  Committee  of  the  Union 
for  Practical  Progress  and  the  Providence  Free  Kindergarten 
Association  on  Summer  Playgrounds,  and  is  thus  entirely  a  pri- 
vate enterprise.  By  a  city  ordinance,  voted  in  1895,  seven  public 
schoolyards,  and  a  room  in  each  of  the  seven  corresponding 
school  buildings,  were  granted  the  committee  for  the  purpose  of 
playgrounds  and  for  storing  material,  the  playground  committee, 
holding  itself  responsible  for  all  damage  of  public  property  thus 
loaned.  Three  other  playgrounds  were  opened  upon  property 
other  than  that  controlled  by  the  Board  of  Education. 

The  movement  in  Philadelphia  began  to  stir  as  early  as  1888, 
although  the  first  playgrounds  were  not  established  until  1895. 

In  1888  Mrs.  J.  P.  Lundy  became  interested  in  the  work  of 
the  City  Parks  Association.  A  series  of  newspaper  articles  fol- 


PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  15Y 

lowed  by  Dr.  J.  M.  Anders,  the  second  of  which  was  entitled 
Summer  Playgrounds  for  our  Boys  and  Girls. 

In  1893  city  councils  passed  the  League  Island  Playground 
Ordinance.  In  1894  the  Civic  Club  was  organized,  a  club  of 
women  whose  object  is  "  to  promote  by  education  and  active 
co-operation  a  higher  public  spirit  and  a  better  social  order." 
For  the  better  execution  of  its  object,  the  club  was  divided  into 
four  departments — municipal,  education,  social  science,  and  art. 
One  of  the  declared  purposes  of  the  Department  of  Art  was  "  to 
encourage  the  art  interests  of  the  city  with  a  view  to  increasing 
the  beauty  of  our  parks  and  public  places."  There  seemed  the 
occasion  for  the  Committee  on  Playgrounds,  which  was  at  once 
formed,  with  Mrs.  J.  P.  Lundy  chairman.  The  recognition  of 
the  playgrounds  as  broadly  educational  suggested  the  fitness  of 
a  representation  upon  the  committee  of  a  member  from  the 
Department  of  Education.  Before  the  summer  was  upon  us 
the  representation  of  the  committee  before  city  councils  resulted 
in  a  grant  of  one  thousand  dollars,  which,  in  1896,  was  increased 
to  three  thousand  dollars.  This  appropriation  was  placed  in  the 
hands  of  the  Board  of  Public  Education.  A  Committee  on  Play- 
grounds was  there  formed,  with  Mr.  Paul  Kavanagh  as  chairman. 

The  subsequent  connection  of  the  Civic  Club  with  the  move- 
ment was  and  is  an  important  one.  Through  its  representative 
from  the  Department  of  Education  it  recommended  directors  for 
appointment  to  the  Board  of  Education;  received  and  collated 
the  full  reports  of  the  directors,  with  additional  matter  in  the 
way  of  suggestion  or  recommendation;  visited  the  yards  sys- 
tematically; appointed  visiting  committees  from  the  club,  whose 
reports  upon  individual  yards  were  valuable;  and  in  every  way 
worked  in  cordial  co-operation  with  the  committee  from  the 
Board  of  Education. 

The  Philadelphia  pla}rgronnds  are  the  only  ones  of  which 
I  know  supported  by  public  funds.  The  resignation  of  all 
broadly  educational  institutions  into  the  hands  of  the  public 
should,  I  think,  be  the  end  toward  which  all  such  movements, 
begun  privately,  should  press.  The  private  associations  have 
an  important  office  in  starting  measures,  sustaining  them  in  the 
beginning,  and  demonstrating  their  value.  When  this  has  been 


158  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

done,  public  spirit  should  demand  the  right  to  place  the  advan- 
tages of  a  good  measure  within  the  reach  of  all  who  need  it. 
The  public  park,  the  public  library,  the  public  kindergarten, 
the  public  playground  represent  a  few  of  these  educational  in- 
fluences which  no  city  can  afford  to  be  without. 

Whether  the  cities  in  which  playgrounds  have  thus  far  been 
established  have  passed  the  torch  from  hand  to  hand,  or  whether 
the  idea  in  each  place  started  a  flame  through  spontaneous  com- 
bustion, as  ideas  in  harmony  with  the  time  spirit  have  a  fashion 
of  doing,  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  out.  Be  that  as  it  may, 
the  reports  from  the  several  directions,  while  individual  and 
different  in  many  ways,  all  record  organizations  similar  to  each 
other  in  important  particulars.  It  is  upon  these  likenesses — 
proved  of  value  by  experience — that  other  cities  may  broadly 
build.  And  therefore  I  outline  them  here. 

First.  I  find  no  exception  to  the  plan  pursued  by  each  city 
of  placing  the  playgrounds  under  constant,  friendly  guardian- 
ship. Free  they  are,  it  is  true.  But  free  under  law.  All  classes 
and  conditions  of  children  crowd  together  in  these  delectable 
places.  But  they  do  not  at  first  know  how  to  use  them.  The 
little  children  need  protection,  guidance,  suggestion;  the  older 
boys  and  girls  need  to  have  stirred  within  them  the  sense  of  law 
and  order,  of  respect  for  the  weak,  a  sense  of  honor  in  play; 
younger  and  older  need  a  constant,  intelligent  presentation  of 
the  ideal.  For  this  purpose  is  oversight  imperative.  Moreover, 
oversight  is  wise  only  through  experience.  And  hence  follows 
the  second  note,  that  every  city  with  a  playground  history  back 
of  it  reaches  out  for  the  kindergartner,  the  woman  who  knows 
children  sympathetically.  And  when  it  finds  her  it  makes  her 
the  caretaker.  It  is  true  that  all  of  these  cities  have  not  done 
this  to  the  same  degree.  Boston  appoints  kindergartners  as  her 
matrons  in  the  playgrounds;  the  assistants  are  kindergartners, 
if  such  can  be  secured.  Excepting  the  cases  of  playgrounds  for 
boys  only — of  which  a  word  later — the  leaders  in  the  Providence 
yards  must  be  kindergartners.  The  superintendent  of  the  play- 
ground under  the  auspices  of  the  Working  Girl's  Club,  New 
York,  is  a  kindergartner.  Philadelphia  appoints  as  caretakers 
only  kindergartners  of  approved  experience. 


PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  159 

Upon  this  care  exercised  in  the  appointment  of  the  young 
women  in  charge  of  the  playgrounds  I  feel  that  too  much  stress 
can  not  be  laid.  The  appointment  of  the  right  matron  to  a  yard 
means  the  extension  of  an  influence  unestimated  unless  person- 
ally observed,  an  influence  reaching  over  into  the  homes,  by  its 
civilizing,  encouraging,  and  enlightening  effect  upon  the  mothers 
and  fathers. 

A  third  feature  common  to  all  city  playgrounds  represented 
in  my  report  is  the  opportunity  afforded  for  additional  means 
of  development  to  that  represented  in  play.  The  work  habit 
finds  an  encouragement  it  sorely  needs  through  the  introduction 
of  pleasant  forms  of  employment,  such  as  sewing,  modeling, 
weaving,  toy-making.  The  literary  sense  receives  probably  its 
first  stimulus  through  the  stories  told  and  the  good  books  and 
magazines  that  are  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  boys  and  girls. 
The  aesthetic  and  uplifting  influence  of  good  music  is  extended 
through  the  songs  that  are  taught.  These  agencies  serve  as 
worthy  associates  of  the  free  games  and  plays. 

Fourth.  Every  city  has  recognized  the  importance  of  open- 
ing the  playgrounds  all  day  six  times  in  the  weeks  for  two  months 
in  the  year.  Some  have  done  more  than  this.  The  Charlesbank 
Playground,  Boston,  is  open,  under  supervision,  on  Sundays  and 
other  days,  from  June  1st  to  November  1st.  The  New  York 
yard  at  Thirty-seventh  Street  was  open  in  the  mornings  in  the 
spring;  in  July  and  August,  morning,  afternoon,  and  night;  and 
winter  will  find  it  still  in  operation.  I  shall  return  to  this  play- 
ground presently  to  note  more  fully  its  varied  ways  of  making 
itself  useful. 

The  record  of  times  of  opening  is  as  follows:  Boston:  Open 
all  day  under  paid  matrons.  New  York:  Thirty-seventh  Street 
yard,  open  morning,  afternoon,  and  night.  Providence:  Partial 
trial,  late  in  the  season,  of  all-day  yards.  Philadelphia:  Open 
mornings  under  directors,  open  in  the  afternoon  with  janitor  in 
charge. 

In  connection  with  the  points  of  similarity  above  enumerated, 
it  may  prove  of  importance  to  examine  also  the  features  peculiar 
to  individual  localities  with  a  view  to  their  adoption  by  a  broader 
circle  when  possible  and  desirable. 


160  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

In  going  over  reports  and  letters  the  following  seemed  to  me 
valuable  suggestions  for  adoption  by  every  city  introducing 
summer  playgrounds: 

1.  Gymnastic  apparatus,  baths,  etc. 

2.  Sunday  playgrounds. 

3.  Boys'  playgrounds. 

4.  Rainy-day  refuges. 

5.  The  broadest  usefulness  for  every  yard. 

The  New  York  ground  at  Thirty-seventh  Street,  one  in 
Providence,  one  in  Philadelphia,  and  one  in  Boston  have  been 
provided,  to  different  extent,  with  swings,  bars,  etc.  But  the 
Boston  Charlesbank  Women's  Gymnasium  and  Children's  Play- 
ground is  especially  complete  in  its  equipment  for  physical  exer- 
cise in  the  open  air.  This  is  under  careful  supervision,  and  is 
very  successful.  Mrs.  Kate  Gannett  Wells  writes:  "We  have 
sand-heaps,  a  large  playground  of  green  grass  and  shrubbery, 
baths,  and  an  open-air  gymnasium.  The  place  and  its  success 
is  a  joy." 

This  playground  is  the  only  one,  so  far  as  I  can  learn,  which 
has  yet  recognized  the  vital  importance  of  providing  an  attractive 
Sunday  refuge  for  these  children  of  the  streets.  Upon  that  day, 
as  upon  others,  the  ground  is  open,  although  the  gymnasium 
is  closed.  "  On  Sunday,"  says  Mrs.  Wells,  "  the  children  have 
sat  on  the  grass  and  listened  to  endless  stories." 

As  a  rule,  boys'  games,  such  as  football,  baseball,  tennis, 
racing,  require  a  wider  field  for  perfect  freedom  than  is  afforded 
in  the  playgrounds.  Even  when  the  yards  are  large  enough, 
the  danger  to  the  other  children  present  is  too  great  to  make 
such  plays  desirable.  Yet  boys  need  their  games  for  the  lessons 
of  "  honor,  fairness,  and  self-control "  which  they  teach,  as  well 
as  for  the  making  of  "  strong  and  sturdy  young  men  out  of  our 
boys,"  as  the  Providence  reports  put  it.  Says  Froebel,  who 
seems  to  have  studied  sympathetically  every  requirement  of  the 
growing  human  being:  "Every  town  should  have  its  own  com- 
mon playground  for  the  boys.  Glorious  results  would  come 
from  this  for  the  entire  community.  For  at  this  period  games, 
whenever  it  is  feasible,  are  common,  and  thus  develop  the  feeling 


PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  161 

and  desire  for  community  and  the  laws  and  requirements  of  com- 
munity. 

"  The  boy  tries  to  see  himself  in  his  companions,,  to  feel  him- 
self in  them,  to  weigh  and  measure  himself  by  them,  and  to  find 
himself  by  their  help.  Thus  the  games  directly  influence  and 
educate  the  boy  for  life,  awaken  and  cultivate  many  civil  and 
moral  virtues." 

Thus  says  Froebel  out  of  the  depths  of  his  knowledge  of 
boy  nature.  And  thus,  in  essence,  the  report  of  the  Providence 
Committee  on  Playgrounds  repeats.  "  As  heretofore  the  com- 
mittee requires  the  leaders  in  the  playgrounds  to  be  kindergart- 
ners,  except  the  young  men  appointed  for  the  boys'  grounds." 
Two  of  the  ten  grounds  opened  were  exclusively  devoted  to  the 
older  boys.  "  Lincoln  Field,"  continues  this  report,  "  the  use 
of  which  was  granted  us  through  the  kindness  of  the  Brown 
University  Athletic  Association,  through  the  courtesy  of  Mr. 
Charles  McCarthy,  who  had  it  in  charge,  was  one  of  the  most 
useful  and  interesting  of  the  playgrounds.  It  drew  boys  from  all 
quarters  of  the  city,  but  especially  the  business  center.  Newsboys 
and  bootblacks  came  in  greatest  numbers.  Baseball  and  racing 
were  the  chief  occupations.  And  the  lessons  of  honor,  fairness, 
and  self-control  which  were  incidentally  taught  so  kindly  but 
firmly  were  of  inestimable  value  to  the  boys." 

I  have  considered  so  far  only  out-of-door,  fair-weather  oppor- 
tunities that  may  be  provided  for  our  boys  and  girls.  But  of  all 
days  those  are  most  demoralizing  to  the  playground  children 
.which  keep  them  shut  up  in  their  close,  hot  rooms,  with  nothing 
with  which  they  may  be  healthfully  occupied  in  mind  and  body. 
It  is  true  the  rainy  day  is  a  factor  which  can  not  be  eliminated. 
But  its  effect  may  be  wholly  neutralized  by  the  antidote  of  pleas- 
ant employment,  and  the  cheerful,  sunny  view  of  life  which  it 
engenders.  I  quote  again  from  Froebel.  He  says:  "  The  sea- 
sons and  surroundings  do  not  always  permit  the  boy,  free  from 
the  duties  of  home  and  school,  to  exercise  and  develop  his  powers 
in  the  open  air,  and  at  no  time  should  boys  be  unoccupied. 
Therefore  other  kinds  of  external  occupations  and  representa- 
tions of  indoor  life  constitute  at  this  age  an  essential  part  of  the 
activity  and  guidance  of  boys,  and  are  very  important  to  them. 


162  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

This  is  particularly  the  case  with  so-called  mechanical  pursuits, 
such  as  paper  and  pasteboard  work,  modeling,  etc."  Carried 
out  into  action,  and  with  this  thought  including,  as  it  should, 
the  older  girls  and  the  little  children,  the  Charlesbank  play- 
room (Boston)  has  robbed  the  rainy  day  of  its  dangers  and  dreari- 
ness. "  In  the  big  playroom  of  the  lodge,"  says  Mrs.  Wells,  "  the 
children  have  frolicked  and  read  on  rainy  days."  Where,  as  is 
the  case  in  most  cities,  the  playgrounds  are  the  yards  belonging 
to  public  school  buildings,  the  rainy-day  adjunct  of  the  play- 
ground seems  to  open  its  own  way  for  establishment  at  no  ad- 
ditional cost.  In  view  of  the  fact  that  repeated  experience  of 
the  Committee  on  Playgrounds  is  that  the  sense  of  responsibility 
and  ownership  is  constantly  increasing  among  those  who  use  the 
grounds  and  apparatus,  and,  as  a  result,  that  no  destruction  of 
property  has  occurred,  the  possible  plea  that  the  rooms  and  their 
furnishings  may  be  spoiled  would  rest  upon  no  valid  foundation. 
Why  shall  not  our  rooms  and  grounds  be  turned  to  every  possible 
good  use?  All  summer  most  of  them  lie  idle.  Yet  there  they 
are,  ready  to  be  .of  service  every  hour  of  every  day,  needed  beyond 
words,  promising  an  inestimable  return  "  to  the  worthiest  and 
most  important  of  our  citizens,"  as  one  newspaper  recently  called 
the  children.  At  least  one  place  of  which  I  have  learned  in  my 
search  through  playground  annals  respects  the  law  of  all-round 
development  through  use — namely,  the  New  York  playground, 
under  the  management  of  Miss  Dodge.  Here  are  the  services 
that  useful  yard  yields  to  humanity  as  represented  in  a  little 
corner  of  New  York  city. 

Before  vacation  the  ground  was  open  in  the  afternoon.  In 
July  and  August  it  was  open  from  eight  to  twelve  and  from  one 
to  six,  for  the  children  big  and  little. 

"  A  delightful  feature  of  the  ground,"  writes  Miss  Dodge, 
"  was  the  use  of  it  each  evening,  between  six  and  seven,  by  Fire 
Department  horses.  A  station  was  directly  opposite,  and  the 
captain  asked  the  privilege  of  bringing  in  his  horses,  so  that  they 
might  play  there.  Eight  or  nine  came  in  each  evening,  and  each 
had  his  regular  corner  to  roll  in,  and  afterward  in  turn  they  gal- 
loped around  the  ground.  It  was  remarkable  that  no  harm  fol- 
lowed, and  that  the  horses  did  not  even  kick  any  of  the  apparatus." 


PLAYGROUNDS  IN  CITIES.  163 

On  four  nights  in  the  week  it  was  rented  out  to  boys'  clubs 
and  a  girls'  club. 

During  certain  holidays  a  group  of  young  men  used  and 
protected  the  ground. 

From  June  1st  to  November  1st  this  faithful  yard  was  to 
have  stood  the  children's  friend.  "  But  the  boys  have  made 
such  a  plea  to  have  it  open,"  continues  the  report,  "that  we 
have  not  felt  it  right  to  close  it.  It  is  now  too  cold  for  the  sand 
heap  to  be  used,  except  occasionally,  but  every  afternoon  and  all 
day  Saturday  there  are  from  two  hundred  to  two  hundred  and  fifty 
boys  and  girls  who  are  enthusiastic  over  their  play,  and  in  the 
morning  hours  a  group  of  young  men  who  are  out  of  work  are 
allowed  the  use  of  the  ground  for  athletic  sports.  It  is  surely 
better  for  them  to  be  so  employed  than  to  be  hanging  about 
saloons,  and  they  feel  honored  in  being  allowed  to  have  the 
ground  free  of  supervision,  and  zealously  protect  it. 

"  The  boys  are  looking  forward  to  the  winter  sports,  and 
already  planning  for  toboggan  slides,  snow  forts,"  etc. 

As  one  reads  this  report  of  the  varied  and  generous  useful- 
ness of  this  playground,  the  giving  up  of  itself  hourly  to  the 
nearest  and  best  service  it  can  render,  a  sense  of  respect  for  it, 
as  for  some  animate,  conscious  thing,  creeps  over  one,  and  possi- 
bly a  little  sense  of  humility  under  the  lesson  it  silently  teaches. 

I  have  tried  to  outline  the  essential  elements  in  the  history  of 
the  playground  movement  in  the  United  States,  the  factors  in 
its  success,  individual  experiments  which  have  proved  valuable, 
and  to  indicate  through  this  brief  sketch  the  superb  possibilities 
that  thus  open  out  before  us  through  this  young  movement  in 
its  influence  upon  the  happiness  of  the  children.  The  supreme 
result  of  the  opportunities  the  playground  affords  lies  in  its 
lesson  of  freedom  and  self-government  along  the  line  of  right 
ideals.  The  child's  natural  activity  is  encouraged  to  its  utmost. 
Exercised  it  must  be.  But  where  formerly  the  activity  took  the 
lines  of  lawlessness  and  selfishness,  it  is  now  directed  into  chan- 
nels that  make  for  the  welfare  of  the  many,  while  subserving 
also  through  this  very  discipline  the  best  interest  of  the  indi- 
vidual. The  children  are  doing  what  they  want  to  do,  and  they 
are  learning  to  do  it  in  a  harmonious,  happy  fashion.  Out  of  the 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

hot,  stuffy  rooms,  out  of  the  streets  and  away  from  the  lawless- 
ness that  street  companionship  usually  engenders,  the  play- 
grounds invite  them  in,  'provide  them  with  material  through 
which  they  may  express  themselves,  offer  them  plenty  of  space 
for  play,  or  pleasant,  shady  places  in  which  they  may  rest  with 
quiet  wor%k,  singing,  listening  to  stories,  minding  the  baby  if 
need  be;  surround  them  with  a  moral  atmosphere  whose  very 
breath  helps  the  children  to  find  themselves;  extend  to  them 
the  hand  of  friendliness  and  sympathy.  Nor  does  the  blessing 
of  the  playground  stop  with  the  children.  "  Numbers  of  mothers 
came  also  for  a  quiet  moment,"  says  the  Philadelphia  report, 
"bringing  the  babies  in  the  coaches,  bringing  also  the  sewing 
and  the  knitting  that  had  to  be  done,  listening  to  the  stories, 
joining  in  the  singing,  watching  the  games,  and  now  and  then 
becoming  as  children,  taking  part  in  the  play  with  a  gusto  that 
was  refreshing." 

I  have  no  time  to  speak  of  the  indirect,  but  no  less  potent, 
effect  of  the  playground  and  the  directors  upon  the  homes,  soft- 
ening and  refining  them;  of  the  broadening  of  experience  to  the 
directors,  visitors,  committees  of  which  the  reports  speak;  of  the 
effect  upon  the  public  spirit  of  the  city  itself  through  the  object 
lesson  thus  unfolded  before  the  eyes  of  the  citizens;  of  the  invit- 
ing example  to  other  cities  to  secure  the  same  measure  of  good  to 
its  children.  But  go  into  one  of  these  playgrounds  on  the  first 
opportunity  that  offers;  make  such  opportunity  if  it  does  not 
meet  you  halfway;  take  with  you  other  men  and  women  with 
hearts  and  minds  and  wills,  and  with  children  of  their  own  who 
have  no  need  of  the  public  playground,  and  the  result  will  be 
committees  forming  everywhere  in  the  interest  of  the  playground, 
experiment,  conviction,  and,  finally,  a  public  opinion  so  power- 
ful in  its  appeal  that  it  must  be  listened  to  and  obeyed.  You 
have  it  absolutely  in  your  own  hands.  The  issue  lies  with  you. 


SOME  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OF  CHILD  STUDY.        165 


SOME  PKACTICAL   EESULTS   OF  CHILD   STUDY. 

BY  DR.  G.  STANLEY  HALL, 

Worcester,  Mass. 

MADAM  PRESIDENT  AND  LADIES  OF  THE  MOTHERS'  CON- 
GRESS: My  discourse  is  a  plain,  homely,  and  informal  descrip- 
tion of  a  new  movement  of  large  promise  for  both  education  and 
science,  which  is  largely  American  in  its  origin,  and  wholly  so 
in  its  spirit.  Although  so  new,  it  is  already  represented  by 
several  large  State  organizations,  two  journals  devoted  to  it 
alone,  with  departments  in  perhaps  a  score  of  others,  several 
summer  schools,  and  hundreds  of  local  organizations  throughout 
the  country.  It  has  a  rapidly  growing  body  of  literature  of  all 
degrees  of  merit  from  nothing  up.  There  is  hardly  a  progressive 
teacher  in  the  country  young  enough  in  years  and  mind  to  be 
affected  by  new  movements  who  is  not  in  sympathetic,  if  not 
active,  relations  to  it.  It  is  the  chief  movement  of  the  closing 
century  in  both  education  and  psychology. 

Comprehensive  as  is  its  external  history,  it  is  not  this  upon 
which  I  wish  to  dwell.  In  the  time  at  my  disposal  I  can  only 
sample  very  briefly  a  few  of  its  salient  results. 

I.  Growth! — By  measurements  on  thousands  of  children,  it 
appears  that  boys  from  fourteen  to  sixteen,  and  girls  a  trifle 
earlier,  grow  more  rapidly  than  at  any  other  period  of  life  both 
in  weight  and  height.  These  growing  periods  are,  as  a  rule,  the 
most  healthful  parts  of  life,  and  if  there  is  disease,  arrest  of 
the  normal  growth  is  often  the  first  symptom,  sometimes  ante- 
dating by  weeks  and  months  every  other  symptom.  During 
these  nascent  periods  there  is  great  danger  of  overwork  and, 
especially,  overstrain.  Education  should  be  given  largely  by 
methods  and  movement;  suggestion  and  excessive  accuracy  and, 
above  all,  fatigue  are  chiefly  to  be  avoided.  Too  much  brain 
work  is  certain  to  dwarf  organs,  limbs,  or  other  parts  of  the 
body,  so  that  complete  development  is  arrested.  Children  never 
12 


166  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

need  to  be  left  to  follow  their  own  interests,  yet  to  be  so  care- 
fully controlled  and  directed,  as  at  this  period. 

Again,  growth  begins  with  the  larger  muscles  and  the  joints, 
and  with  the  brain  cells  and  fibers  that  control  them,  and  much 
later  is  focused  upon  the  smaller  muscles  which  move  fingers, 
features,  vocal  organs,  etc.,  which  are  especially  the  muscles  of 
expression.  Profs.  Bryan  and  Hancock  have  shown  by  painstak- 
ing researches  how  late,  slow,  and  hard  this  evolution  is,  and 
how  easily  it  is  arrested.  These  finer  muscles  do  the  accurate 
work  of  the  world,  and  excessive  strain  upon  them  causes  symp- 
toms of  chorea  and  muscular  inco-ordination.  They  are  the 
thought  muscles,  and  especially  in  children  must  be  active  if 
the  mind  works  well.  It  is  hardly  possible  to  change  them  from 
one  idea  to  another  without  changing  at  least  the  tension  of  these 
delicate  muscles;  hence  to  require  children  to  sit  still  is  to  re- 
quire mental  inaction.  If  the  fundamental  muscles  are  like  the 
framework  of  a  house,  these  latter  accessory  muscles  are  like 
the  paper  and  frescoing. 

II.  Health. — From  many  thousand  tests  it  appears  that  the 
eyes  of  school  children  deteriorate  in  rapid  ratio  up  through 
the  course.  Myopia  is  a  common  defect,  but  headaches,  etc.,  are 
frequently  caused.  \Ve  can  not  compare  school  children  with 
those  who  do  not  go  to  school  in  this  regard,  and  hence  it  would 
be  rash  to  lay  all  the  blame  upon  the  school.  There  is  no  doubt, 
however,  but  that  the  treadmill  work  of  the  eyes  zigzagging 
across  the  lines  of  the  printed  book  is  as  unnatural  as  a  tread- 
mill is  for  the  legs,  and  restricts  its  freer  movements  in  Nature. 
Headaches,  defective  palates,  adenoid  growths  in  the  nose,  and 
especially  defective  hearing,  which  is  so  often  wrongly  inter- 
preted by  teachers  as  stupidity,  also  increase  in  school  years. 
Many  schools  in  France  and  elsewhere  now  keep  health  books, 
one  for  each  child,  wherein  the  parent,  teacher,  and  the  school 
doctor  make  careful  entries,  where  every  disease  the  child  has 
had  is  described,  diet,  regimen  advised,  etc.  Sometimes  parents 
and  teachers  meet  monthly  to  discuss  the  children's  health,  and 
this  is  a  most  salutary  bond  between  school  and  home.  School 
hygiene  has  become  a  large  department  of  pedagogy,  with  its 
own  journals  and  experts,  wherein  matters  often  minute — like 


SOME  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OP  CHILD  STUDY. 

the  bacteria  in  floor  cracks  or  under  the  finger  nails — are  dis- 
cussed. Just  as  a  tenth  of  a  mill  makes  a  great  difference  in  the 
income  of  a  university  if  levied  on  the  taxation  of  a  whole  State, 
so  a  slighter  variation  in  favor  of  health  counts  up  enormously 
when  millions  of  children  are  involved. 

Again,  many  parents  open  a  "  life  book  "  the  day  their  child 
is  born,  entering  not  only  size  and  weight,  but  all  incidents, 
traits  of  character,  etc.,  with  frequent  photographs,  parental 
anxieties,  plans,  hopes,  etc.  What  a  bond  between  parent  and 
child  must  such  a  book  be  when  presented  to  each  boy  and  girl 
when  they  go  out  into  the  great  world!  What  a  treasure  house 
of  self-knowledge,  useful  in  choosing  a  career,  and  what  a  salu- 
tary fund  of  memories  of  parental  care  these  life  books  are  going 
to  be! 

Let  us  not  forget  that  the  word  health  means  wholeness,  and 
is  the  same  as  holiness;  that  our  first  duty  is  to  keep  children 
well  and  happy;  that  if  the  modern  school,  which  captures  the 
child,  shuts  him  away  from  Nature  and  free  movement  and  play 
in  an  unwholesome  air,  worried  and  nervous,  is  gradually  bring- 
ing about  a  sickly  age  upon  the  world,  it  is  doing  more  harm 
than  all  the  knowledge  that  can  possibly  be  instilled  does  good. 
Are  children  healthier  in  school  or  for  going  to  school  and 
learning  lessons?  Is  the  joy  of  living  or  euphoria  more  abun- 
dant? If  not,  we  must  order  a  halt  or  make  a  radical  change. 

At  Clark  University  for  the  last  two  years  we  have  printed 
at  intervals  about  forty-five  leaflet  questionnaires,  which  we  gladly 
send  to  any  parent  or  teacher  who  will  attempt  to  send  us  an- 
swers. The  topics  we  study  are,  to  sample  a  few,  anger — com- 
plete accounts  of  special  cases  of  which  we  seek,  in  order  that, 
by  combining,  tabulating,  and  applying  principles  of  psychology 
and  anthropology,  we  can  see  the  different  types  of  anger  as 
with  a  microscope,  learn  what  it  is  and  how  to  treat  it.  Other 
topics  are  dolls — studied  to  learn  the  historical  development  of 
the  doll  passion,  which  begins  in  very  crude  dolls,  that  leave 
much  to  the  imagination,  culminates  at  eight  or  nine  on  the 
average,  and  slowly  vanishes  in  two  dimensions  in  paper  dolls. 
Children's  fears — their  causes,  effects,  cures;  exceptional  and 
peculiar  children  of  many  kinds;  imitation;  toys,  especially  self- 


108  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

made  toys;  the  different  modes  of  crying  and  laughing  with 
pleasure  and  pain;  the  many  automatic  movements  children 
make  in  fixing  the  attention,  writing,  etc.;  folklore  and  supersti- 
tion, plays  and  games;  the  peculiarity  of  only  children;  their 
feelings  for  animate  and  inanimate  Nature;  their  sense  of  self; 
the  gradual  development  of  infants'  speech;  religious  senti- 
ments; imagination;  sense  of  certainty  and  forms  of  emphatic 
assertion;  affection  and  its  manifestations  among  children.  Such 
studies  mark  the  entrance  of  evolution  in  the  study  of  the  soul; 
they  show  us  traces  of  a  remote  past,  and  are  full  of  unconscious 
reminiscences.  Some  twenty-five  articles  based  upon  these  re- 
turns are  already  published,  and  speak  for  themselves;  the  rest 
are  on  the  way.  But  the  movement  now  is  greatly  retarded  for 
want  of  a  salaried  secretary  to  answer  questions,  direct  new 
organizations,  and  especially  mothers'  clubs,  make  addresses, 
supplying  all  kinds  of  information,  computing  tables,  etc. 

We  have  now  begun  to  apply  some  of  these  results  to  the  dif- 
ferent school  branches,  and  reading,  number  work,  music,  phys- 
ical culture,  and  the  kindergarten  will,  it  is  hoped,  soon  receive 
such  light  and  practical  suggestions  as  they  can  afford. 

One  of  the  most  marvelous  of  the  instruments  of  science  is 
the  microscope.  Nearly  every  one  of  these  which  has  an  expert 
and  trained  eye  behind  it  is  now  studying  some  of  the  phenomena 
of  growth,  tracing  that  marvelous  process  by  which  the  single 
'Cell  divides,  those  halves  divide  again,  those  again,  etc.,  until  we 
see  that  the  animal  is  to  be  at  least  one  of  the  metazoa;  as  the 
process  goes  on,  we  see  it  will  be  perhaps  a  vertebrate,  then  man. 
Each  one  of  us  has  recapitulated  the  whole  history  of  life  upon 
this  globe  in  the  brief  period  since,  a  few  months  before  birth, 
our  being  was  a  single  cell.  The  adult  human  body  has  about 
one  hundred  and  fifty  so-called  rudimentary  organs  which  are 
traces  of  our  remote  and  humble  origin,  not  a  tissue  in  it  which 
we  did  not  inherit  from  an  animal  ancestry.  Children's  fears 
of  big  eyes,  big  teeth,  and  often  fur,  suggest  the  time  of  animals' 
formidable  movements  just  as  truly  as  the  vermiform  appendage, 
the  traces  of  gill  slits  in  our  necks,  or  the  Darwinian  tubercle 
in  the  ear  suggest  the  animal  organs.  Our  body  and  soul  are 
full  of  these  fossils;  instinct  and  feeling  strike  their  roots  deep- 


SOME  PRACTICAL  RESULTS  OF  CHILD  STUDY.        169 

est  that  they  may  grow  highest.  All  children  believe  in  fetishes, 
and  cherish  pretty  stones,  sticks,  toys;  they  see  life  in  the 
clouds,  God's  face  in  the  moon;  hear  voices  in  the  wind  and  sea 
and  trees;  find  eyes  and  laughs  of  greeting  in  the  stars  and  flow- 
ers, and  we  must  recognize  these  elements  in  education.  The 
tadpole  never  loses  its  tail,  but  it  is,  as  it  were,  absorbed,  and 
makes  legs;  these  dwindle  if  it  is  cut  after  it  has  attained  its 
full  development,  probably  in  order  that  the  organs  of  land  loco- 
motion be  fully  developed  and  it  rise  to  an  amphibious  instead 
of  aquatic  life.  Why  will  we  not  apply  the  parable  of  the  tad- 
pole's tail  to  the  soul?  Children  can  not  be  good  Christians 
unless  they  have  been  good  fetishists;  they  can  not  love  science 
unless  they  have  believed  in  and  loved  Nature  as  animate.  The 
sin  of  the  Church  and  school  is  in  kicking  over  the  ladder  by 
which  we  rose,  and  endeavoring  to  teach  the  religion  and  science 
of  adults  to  those  who  linger  in  the  paradise  of  infancy. 

Of  course,  some  things  must  be  eliminated;  the  parable  of 
the  milk  teeth  does  apply  in  some  fields,  but  this  method  has 
been  greatly  overemphasized  in  both  secular  and  religious 
training. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  studies  of  childhood  are  those 
of  adolescence,  when  the  soul,  instead  of  being  predominantly 
selfish,  becomes  altruistic  when  love  in  the  larger,  deeper  sense 
can  arise.  The  bodily  changes  here  are  great  and  numerous; 
still  more  so  those  of  the  soul.  The  brain  ceases  to  grow  in  size, 
and  focuses  its  growth  upon  function  and  differentiation.  How 
this  most  critical  period  is  treated  is  the  best  philosophy  of 
history  I  know.  Some  races  have  appealed  to  its  pugnacity, 
others  to  its  mysticism,  others  to  its  rivalry.  It  is  a  period  of 
ferment,  which  is  not  over  for  at  least  a  decade;  beside  the  doc- 
trine of  prolongation  of  infancy  I  place  that  of  the  prolongation 
of  adolescence.  Most  conversions  in  religion  occur  here.  The 
Greek,  Catholic,  Jewish,  Lutheran,  and  Episcopal  children  are 
confirmed.  It  is  the  pedagogue's  great  opportunity;  the  edu- 
cation extends  up  toward  the  university  and  down  toward  the 
kindergarten  as  civilization  increases,  but  always  beginning  here. 
The  study  of  this  topic  has  a  fundamental  importance  for  clergy- 
men as  well  as  parents,  and  our  regimen  during  these  critical 


170  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

years,  when  temptations  are  hottest,  when  the  pressure  is  high- 
est, when  young  people  must  have  excitement  or  be  dwarfed, 
is  the  common  problem  of  the  Church,  the  home,  and  the  school. 

Quite  apart  from  its  results,  the  study  of  children  is  good 
in  itself.  It  enriches  parenthood,  brings  the  adult  and  the  child 
nearer  together,  reveals  the  great  fact  that  the  best  parents  are 
as  ignorant  of  the  soul  as  of  the  anatomy  of  the  body.  Again, 
it  tends  to  the  proper  individualization  of  children  at  a  time 
when  the  school  would  uniformatize.  Success  in  life  depends 
upon  the  cultivation  of  individual  qualities,  and  school  methods 
systematically  neglect  these.  Again,  it  is  especially  the  woman's 
province  of  work;  she  brings  out  her  peculiar  quality  when  a 
personal  bond  connects  her  with  every  child  rather  than  when 
she  is  running  a  man-made  school  machine.  It  is  a  new  science 
of  the  soul;  it  teaches  how  to  apply  heredity;  how  instruction 
begins  where  heredity  falters,  and  should  supplement  it. 

Finally,  there  are  a  few  immediate  practical  results  that 
must  be  applied  without  delay  in  education: 

I.  Excessively  fine  work,  whether  in  writing  or  the  kinder- 
garten, should  be  avoided. 

II.  Drawing  should  precede  writing,  and  should  begin  not 
with  the  cube  and  cylinder,  but  free-hand  with  living  things  in 
action. 

III.  Religious  instruction  begins  in  the  Nature  work;  the 
sigh  of  the  forest  and  of  the  star,  the  beauty  of  the  flower,  etc., 
are  its  watchwords. 

IV.  Music  must  be  taught  by  ear  and  by  rote  until  quite  a 
repertoire  of  songs  are  acquired  before  musical  characters  are 
introduced,  otherwise  we  are  teaching  to  read  before  the  child 
can  speak.     This  analogy  holds  from  the  standpoint  of  brain 
physiology. 

V.  Modern  languages  taught  by  the  ear  method  have  their 
most  favorable  time  from  the  ages  of  eight  to  twelve,  and  an- 
cient from  ten  to  fifteen. 

VI.  Literature  teaching  should  begin  with  story-telling,  one 
of  the  noblest  arts. 

VII.  Interests  must  be  utilized,  each  at  its  own  golden  period; 
it  enables  a  vast  amount  of  work  to  be  done  without  fatigue; 


BEADING  COURSES  FOR  MOTHERS.  171 

but,  lastly,  we  must  never  drop  the  drill  element  for  certain 
things  which  must  be  memorized  and  mechanized  without  any 
attempt  at  explanation.  The  brain  is  a  wonderful  organ,  more 
complex  and  unified  than  anything  in  Nature.  It  is  the  mouth- 
piece of  the  infinite,  and  its  unfoldment  is  confided  to  our  care. 
I  know  no  better  motto  than  this:  Unity  with  Nature  is  the 
glory  of  childhood,  and  unity  with  Nature  and  with  childhood  is 
the  glory  of  motherhood.  Where  if  not  in  a  Congress  of  Mothers 
should  such  a  movement  find  its  ardent  support  and  its  warmest 
home?  May  the  mother  element  dominate  this  new,  potent,  and 
most  healthful  organization! 


THURSDAY  EVENING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

EEADING  COUESES  FOE  MOTHEES. 

BY  MRS.  MARGARET  E.  SANGSTER, 

New  York  City. 

THE  thought  of  a  course  of  reading  is  rather  formidable 
when  presented  to  the  mind  of  a  busy  woman  whose  time  is 
already  occupied  with  the  care  of  the  house,  the  management 
of  her  children,  and  the  various  social  duties  which  crowd  upon 
time  in  our  complex  modern  civilization.  Many  women  find 
their  reading  necessarily  very  limited;  others  have  a  sort  of  un- 
spoken feeling  that  to  read  in  the  daytime,  even  if  time  is  af- 
forded, is  a  sort  of  wasteful  idleness.  Margaret  Ogilvy,  you 
remember,  thought  it  hardly  respectable  to  read  in  the  morning. 
I  remember  the  pithy  saying  of  one  friend  whose  babies  were 
crowded  in  the  nursery  like  birds  in  the  nest,  "  I  have  aban- 
doned all  thought  or  hope  of  reading  anything  except  the  Bible 
and  the  cookery  book." 

Still,  reading  according  to  method  is  not  so  formidable  a 
thing  as  it  seems.  Everything  in  life  which  we  can  arrange 


172  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

according  to  system  will  fall  into  line  and  serve  us  if  our  wills 
are  strong  enough  and  our  purposes  sufficiently  steady.  The 
mother  with  little  children  around  her  naturally  desires  to  read 
those  books  which  will  help  her  in  the  training  of  the  little  ones 
whose  development,  both  physical  and  intellectual,  is  so  rapid 
as  to  amaze  and  perplex  those  of  us  who  advance  by  the  slower 
process  of  maturity.  Nothing  in  all  the  world  seems  so  like  a 
miracle  as  the  way  in  which  a  little  child,  unfolds  mentally,  as 
the  flower  to  the  sun,  between  the  ages  of  two  and  five  years, 
and,  of  course,  the  earlier  development  between  birth  and  two 
years  is  as  wonderful  and  strange. 

Many  questions  perplex  the  mother  as  she  guides  the  baby 
and  the  little  child.  The  best  book  which  I  have  seen  for  the 
mother  of  very  small  children  is  one  by  Elizabeth  Scoville,  en- 
titled The  Care  of  Children.  Nothing  which  has  to  do  with 
their  physical  life  in  the  earliest  stages  is  neglected  or  lightly 
passed  over  in  this  admirable  little  manual.  Cradle  and  Nursery, 
by  Christine  Terhune  Herrick,  is  equally  suggestive.  A  book 
entitled  Nursery  Ethics,  by  Florence  Hall  Winterburn,  may 
properly  follow  this  in  its  course,  and  I  would  recommend  also 
Mothers  in  Council,  by  Arthur  Oilman,  a  book  full  of  suggestion 
and  profit.  Our  Children,  by  Mrs.  Auretta  R.  Alrich,  is  an 
admirably  sympathetic  little  manual  prepared  for  mothers  and 
teachers  by  a  kindergartner  of  great  experience  and  much  in- 
tuitive and  acquired  knowledge  of  children  and  their  wants. 
Another  book  which  I  greatly  esteem,  and  which  I  would  like  to 
include  in  this  course  and  place,  if  I  could,  on  the  reading  table 
of  every  mother  in  America,  is  entitled  Gentle  Measures  in  the 
Management  of  the  Young,  and  was  written  long  ago  by  that 
prince  of  educators,  Jacob  Abbott. 

May  I  say  a  word  here  for  the  immortal  Rollo  books,  dear 
to  the  heart  of  children  of  an  older  day?  These  stories  are  so 
simple,  so  natural,  so  replete  with  pleasant  suggestion  and  indi- 
rect counsel,  that  they  are  as  valuable  to  mothers  as  they  are  to 
children.  I  would  be  more  than  glad  if  I  could  see  the  modern 
child  absorbed  in  the  Rollo  books  as  children  were  forty  years 
ago.  They  are  wholesome,  breezy,  and  full  of  interest,  and  no 
mother  can  fail  to  read  them  with  profit. 


BEADING  COURSES  FOR  MOTHERS.  173 

As  children  grow  older  and  attend  school  they  come  to  the 
mother  with  constant  questions  which  she  finds  it  hard  to  answer. 
They  are  interested  in  all  sorts  of  things:  one  child  has  a  passion 
for  natural  history,  another  is  fascinated  by  astronomy,  still  an- 
other cares  for  adventure  and  the  marvels  of  discovery,  and 
many  delight  in  history  and  in  military  exploits.  The  mother's 
reading  should  be  sufficiently  catholic  to  enable  her  to  assist  her 
eager  questioners  at  every  turn.  She  may  well  familiarize  her- 
self with  their  school  text-books,  which,  in  passing,  I  may  say 
are  likely  to  be  condensed  epitomes  of  the  larger  works  for  which 
the  ordinary  reader  has  no  time.  If  the  child  loves  flowers,  let 
the  mother  read  the  best  work  on  botany  which  she  can  get. 
Mrs.  Creevey's  Eecreations  in  Botany  or  Mr.  Gibson's  Sharp 
Eyes  will  be  wonderfully  helpful  to  her.  Any  of  the  books  of 
Thoreau,  of  Olive  Thorne  Miller,  of  John  Burrows,  of  Bradford 
Torrey,  or  of  any  other  nice  observer  of  birds  and  flowers  and 
trees  will  be  helpful  to  the  mother  whose  boys  and  girls  are 
anywhere  between  eight  and  twelve  years  old. 

She  will  find  great  help  from  reading  the  stories  of  Kate 
Douglas  Wiggin,  Mary  Mapes  Dodge,  and  the  ever-lamented 
Johanna  Ewing.  These  are  books  which  she  may  read  with  her 
children,  and  also  with  her  boys  she  may  take  up  The  Century 
Book  for  Young  Americans  and  the  Century  Book  of  Famous 
Authors.  Probably  her  boys  are  familiar  with  the  works  of 
Kirk  Monroe,  which  weave  in  in  the  course  of  the  story  a  great 
many  very  delightful  bits  of  information,  and  which  carry  an 
excellent  moral  all  through  the  narrative,  though  a  moral  is 
never  tacked  on. 

But  I  would  plead  with  mothers  for  something  broader  than 
mere  utilitarianism  in  their  study  and  reading.  As  Mrs.  Brown- 
ing has  said,  we  get  no  good  by  being  ungenerous  even  to  a  book. 
It  is  when  we  lose  ourselves  in  a  book,  not  caring  for  the  prac- 
tical good  it  will  do  so  much  as  for  the  pleasure  and  fascination 
of  the  book  itself  that  it  enters  into  our  blood  and  becomes  part 
of  our  very  life.  I  advise  as  a  family  investment  that  every 
household  should  possess  that  remarkable  biography,  Boswell's 
Life  of  Johnson,  a  work  so  replete  with  educational  suggestions, 
with  humor,  with  the  sort  of  common  sense  which  can  never 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

wear  out,  that  it  fits  into  every  mood,  pleases  every  taste,  and 
becomes  a  possession  and  an  heirloom. 

It  was  glorious  old  Sam  Johnson  who  said,  "  While  you  are 
hesitating  which  book  your  boy  shall  read,  and  balancing  the 
merits  of  the  two  books,  another  boy  will  have  read  them  both." 
The  whole  field  of  biography  affords  excellent  scope  for  the  study 
of  mothers,  and  among  later  books  in  this  line  I  can  think  of 
nothing  more  suggestive  than  a  book  so  large  that  probably  few 
women  will  wish  to  buy  it,  although  it  might  easily  become  the 
property  of  a  book  club  or  reading  circle,  and  such  clubs  and 
circles  ought  to  be  found  in  every  village  and  town.  I  refer  to 
The  Story  of  my  Life,  by  Augustus  Hare.  Mr.  Hare  has  written 
many  books,  none  of  them  surpassing  in  interest  the  biography 
of  which  I  speak. 

As  a  very  small  child  he  was  surrendered  by  his  own  parents 
to  a  relative  who  wished  to  adopt  a  child,  his  mother  sending 
the  message  that  if  there  were  others  in  the  family  who  wished 
to  relieve  them  of  care  they  had  several  other  children  who 
might  be  given  away.  The  poor  little  child  was  taken  into  the 
family  of  a  widowed  aunt,  between  whom  and  himself  there  came 
to  be  in  later  years  a  bond  seldom  equaled,  even  in  the'  relation- 
ship of  an  own  mother  and  child.  But  mistaken  views  of  child 
training  and  an  entirely  peculiar  set  of  circumstances  gave  this 
sensitive  little  being  a  most  unhappy  childhood.  Everybody 
thwarted  him,  everybody  felt  called  upon  to  reprove  him.  It 
was  enough  for  him  to  have  a  wish  and  express  it  to  have  it  in- 
stantly denied,  and  the  story  of  his  childhood  frorn  beginning 
to  end  is  one  which  all  mothers  would  do  well  to  read  by  way 
of  warning,  and  in  order  that  they  may  see  how  strongly  injus- 
tice and  oppression  may  make  their  marks  upon  the  childish 
memory. 

Among  other  admirably  suggestive  volumes  for  mothers  are 
The  Memoirs  of  the  Baroness  Bunsen,  The  Story  of  Two  Noble 
Lives,  The  Gurneys  of  Earlham,  The  Life  of  Maria  EdgewortL, 
and  Mr.  Shorter's  Life  of  Charlotte  Bronte.  Another  book  thou- 
sands have  lately  read  with  pleasure  is  Margaret  Ogilvy,  by  J.  M. 
Barrie,  A  Son's  Tribute  to  his  Mother.  We  who  have  read  that 
book  feel  that  we  have  been  admitted  to  a  sanctuary,  and  the 


BEADING  COURSES  FOR  MOTHERS.  175 

small  Scottish  home  will  forever  seem  to  us  holy  ground.  So 
should  mothers  impress  sons;  so  should  sons  reverence  and  love 
mothers.  Let  me  again  mention  The  Gurneys  of  Earlham,  which 
is  a  story  of  a  very  large  and  prosperous  Quaker  family  in  Eng- 
land— a  family  so  large  in  its  ramifications  that  it  reminds  us  of 
Miss  Yonge's  Daisy  Chain  and  Heir  of  Eedcliffe — in  which  there 
seem  to  be  no  end  to  the  children.  This  is  a  book  which  mothers 
would  find  very  helpful  and  suggestive;  especially  the  story  of 
the  mother-sister  and  the  way  in  which  she  managed  and  con- 
trolled and  influenced  her  flock,  and  the  diary  of  the  brilliant 
little  Louise,  as  frank  as  anything  to  be  found  in  literature,  will 
be  useful  to  every  mother  into  whose  hands  the  book  may  fall. 
Such  a  book  might  be  taken  as  a  center  around  which  an  intelli- 
gent woman  would  group  her  studies  into  the  life  of  the  period, 
the  history  of  the  king  then  on  the  throne,  the  wars  and  the 
rumors  of  wars  which  were  going  on  about  the  world,  the  fash- 
ions in  dress,  the  fashions  in  politics,  and  the  general  aspect  of 
the  world  at  the  time  would  naturally  fall  into  such  a  course. 
The  intelligent  mother  would  find  out  which  were  the  noted 
authors  of  that  day,  which  the  noted  generals  who  were  making 
history  at  the  time,  what  was  the  state  of  society,  what  inven- 
tions and  discoveries  had  then  been  made,  and  the  whole  family 
might  easily  find  entertainment  and  instruction  for  a  winter 
in  following  out  such  a  course  as  this. 

The  mother's  course  of  reading  should  never  be  a  wholly 
selfish  one.  It  should  have  in  view  the  profit  and  pleasure  of 
her  family,  and  groups  of  mothers  meeting  together  and  follow- 
ing out  a  course  of  reading  intelligently  marked  out  might  easily 
affect  and  uplift  the  social  life  of  a  community. 

Nor  should  the  mother  fail  to  read  good  novels  wherever 
she  finds  them.  Sentimental  Tommy,  Beside  the  Bonnie  Brier 
Bush,  The  Lilac  Sunbonnet,  and  books  of  similar  character  will 
enter  into  the  life  of  a  household  as  positive  sources  of  blessing. 

At  the  close  of  Mrs.  Sangster's  address  there  was  a  call  from 
the  audience  for  her  to  recite  one  of  her  poems,  and  she  gave  the 
following: 


170  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


OUR  OWN. 

If  I  had  known  in  the  morning 
How  wearily  all  the  day 

The  words  unkind 

Would  trouble  my  mind 
I  said  when  you  went  away, 
I  had  been  more  careful,  darling, 
Nor  given  you  needless  pain ; 

But  we  vex  our  own 

With  look  and  tone 
We  may  never  take  back  again. 

For  though  in  the  quiet  evening 
You  may  give  me  the  kiss  of  peace, 

Yet  it  might  be 

That  never  for  me 
The  pain  of  the  heart  should  cease. 
How  many  go  forth  in  the  morning 
That  never  come  home  at  night ; 

And  hearts  have  broken 

For  harsh  words  spoken, 
That  sorrow  can  ne'er  set  right. 

We  have  careful  thoughts  for  the  stranger, 
And  smiles  for  the  sometime  guest, 

But  oft  for  "  our  own  " 

The  bitter  tone, 

Though  we  love  "  our  own  "  the  best. 
Ah,  lips  with  the  curve  impatient, 
Ah,  brow  with  that  look  of  scorn, 

Twere  a  cruel  fate 

Were  the  night  too  late 
To  undo  the  work  of  morn. 


GUARD  OUR  YOUTH  AGAINST  BAD  LITERATURE. 


HOW  TO   GUAED   OUE  YOUTH  AGAINST  BAD 
LITEEATUEE. 

BY  ANTHONY  COMSTOCK, 
New  York  City. 

ME.  ANTHONY  COMSTOCK  followed,  making  a  beautiful 
tribute  to  Mrs.  Sangster,  who,  he  claimed,  had  already  answered 
the  very  question  he  had  come  to  answer.  However,  from  his 
carefully  prepared  statistics  he  showed  what  great  good  he  had 
been  able  to  accomplish  during  the  past  twenty-five  years  in  sup- 
pressing degrading  literature. 

He  said,  in  addition:  I  wish,  dear  friends,  that  I  could  take 
you  to  some  lofty  mountain,  and  that  upon  a  widespreading 
plain  beneath  it  I  could  mass  from  the  schools,  the  colleges,  and 
the  other  institutions  of  learning,  and  from  the  homes  of  this 
great  land,  the  millions  of  boys  and  girls  who  are  in  the  training 
school  of  life,  and  let  them  pass  before  you  in  a  magnificent 
parade,  so  that  you  could  comprehend  their  numbers  and  char- 
acter. One  half  of  the  population  of  this  nation  would  march 
before  you,  made  up  of  these  boys  and  girls  who  are  in  the  plastic 
state,  their  character  in  process  of  molding,  formation,  and  de- 
velopment. They  are  at  the  time  of  life  when  in  the  heart  the 
chamber  of  imagery  is  being  decorated  and  the  commissary  of 
the  soul  is  receiving  supplies  to  be  given  out  in  future  life.  How 
many  of  you  mothers  have  ever  stopped  to  think  that  you  are 
the  artists  divinely  appointed  to  decorate  the  walls  of  the  cham- 
ber of  imagery  in  the  hearts  of  your  children,  that  you  are  the 
ones  that  shall  first  carry  in  there  sweet  influences  to  repel  even 
the  approach  of  evil? 

I  wish  I  had  the  time  to  say  what  it  is  in  my  heart  to  say 
of  the  ladies  who  have  conceived  this  beautiful  Congress,  who 
have  poured  out  their  love  and  their  affection  and  their  means 
to  make  it  so  magnificent  a  success.  You  have  lighted  all  over 
this  land  camp  fires  that  will  burn  brighter  and  brighter  in  the 
interest  of  virtue  and  truth. 


178  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

But,  my  dear  friends,  I  must  speak  to  you  of  the  environ- 
ment of  the  children  in  our  nation.  I  know  something  as  to 
what  that  environment  is,  and,  although  it  is  true  that  we  have 
before  us  a  magnificent  parade  of  young  people  marching  on- 
ward with  irresistible  tread  from  infancy  to  youth,  from  youth 
to  manhood  and  womanhood,  and  thence  on  to  eternity,  yet  it 
must  be  borne  in  mind  that  their  ranks  are  surrounded  by  very 
real  dangers — the  evils  that  assail  the  imagination. 

Dear  friends,  you  are  here  as  mothers,  dealing  with  the  vital 
interests  of  your  children.  In  order  to  show  you  that  what  I 
speak  of  is  not  a  mythical  evil,  I  will  ask  your  attention  to  a  few 
figures,  and  shall  then  detain  you  but  a  moment  longer. 

Up  to  this  time  our  society  has  made  2,146  arrests,  and  fol- 
lowing these  there  have  been  penalties  imposed  amounting  in 
aggregate  terms  of  imprisonment  to  396  years  and  in  fines  to 
$147,665.  We  have  seized  63,149  pounds  of  books  and  sheets, 
27,424  pounds  of  stereotype  plates  for  printing  books,  and  700 
pounds  of  lead  molds  for  making  articles  designed  for  immoral 
uses,  the  total  weight  of  these  items  alone  being  91,273  pounds, 
or  more  than  45^  tons.  We  have  gathered  up  874,593  photo- 
graphs and  pictures,  and  have  taken  and  destroyed  5,912  photo- 
graphic negatives,  384  engraved  steel  and  copper  plates,  857 
woodcuts  and  electroplates,  and  58  lithographic  stones,  all  of 
which  had  been  used  or  were  intended  to  be  used  in  the  produc- 
tion of  obscene  prints.  We  have  seized  also  2,396  obscene  fig- 
ures, 96,680  articles  intended  for  immoral  use,  1,582,718  cir- 
culars, songs,  etc.,  124,394  letters,  and  1,335,392  names  and  ad- 
dresses found  in  the  possession  of  men  and  women  whom  we 
have  arrested.  These  letters  are  criminally  sold  as  matter  of 
merchandise,  in  order  that  one  dealer  may  send  out  his  circulars 
and  then  may  pass  on  to  other  dealers  the  names  of  those  to 
whom  he  sends  them,  and  this  will  account  for  the  corruption 
of  many  and  many  a  child  who  has  written  in  reply  to  an  ad- 
vertisement perfectly  legitimate  in  appearance,  and  yet  has  re- 
ceived back  most  immoral  matter  through  the  mail. 

Now  when  you  remember  that  the  mails  of  the  United  States 
are  the  great  arteries  of  communication,  that  they  start  from 
our  large  cities  and  go  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  our  fair  land, 


GUARD  OUR  YOUTH  AGAINST  BAD  LITERATURE.     179 

entering  every  home,  every  institution  of  learning,  every  village, 
and  every  hamlet,  then  you  may  know  something  of  the  power 
of  this  agency  for  disseminating  the  grossest  matter  and  placing 
it,  unknown  to  parent  and  teacher,  in  the  hands  of  our  innocent 
children. 

However  well  we  may  guard  our  children,  there  are  dangers 
of  a  fearful  character  surrounding  them.  Evil  exists  every- 
where; it  meets  children  on  the  puhlic  street,  for  the  very  hill- 
boards  and  posters  on  the  walls  of  our  buildings  are  made  finger 
hoards  that  point  out  to  them  the  pathway  to  destruction;  and 
every  news  stand  furnishes  material  that  is  photographed  upon 
the  eye  of  the  child,  the  negatives  being  carried  to  the  chamber 
of  imagery,  where  the  spirit  of  evil  may  either  hold  them  in  abey- 
ance or  constantly  reproduce  from  them  pictures  for  the  injuri- 
ous entertainment  of  the  child's  mind.  Then  comes  the  degrad- 
ing literature  sold  in  .the  form  of  "  blood-and-thunder "  story 
papers  and  novels. 

Last  January,  in  preparing  and  tabulating  some  statements 
for  our  annual  meeting,  I  adopted  the  method  of  collecting  to- 
gether the  number  of  arrests  made  during  a  single  month  of  boys 
and  girls  under  twenty-one  years  of  age.  This  table  I  will  read 
(see  page  180),  and  I  wish  to  say  that  I  believe  that  ninety-five 
per  cent  of  these  reported  cases  were  directly  chargeable  to  the 
sickening  details  of  murders  and  loathsome  crimes  published  in 
our  daily  newspapers. 

Now,  dear  friends,  I  know  that  these  are  painful  matters, 
but  I  also  know  that  they  are  facts  which  you  earnest  Christian 
mothers  ought  to  know,  and  facts  which  all  of  us,  as  Christian 
men  and  women,  must  resist,  or  the  prospect  of  future  genera- 
tions will  be  greatly  jeopardized. 

Eealizing  the  unwholesome  truths  of  much  which  was  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Comstock,  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  adopted 
into  their  recommendations  to  parents  the  sentiment  against 
literature,  billboards,  etc.,  which  works  evil  on  the  inner  de- 
veloping life  of  imagery,  the  standard  of  which  must  become 
elevated  when  the  parents'  care  is  exercised  toward  the  subject. 


180 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 


TABULAR  STATEMENT  SHOWING  NUMBER  OF  BOYS  AND  GIRLS  ARRESTED  DURING  ONE  MONTH, 
AS  REPORTED  BY  THE  NEWSPAPERS,  BETWEEN  DECEMBER  15,  1896,  AND  JANUARY  15, 
1897.  (AGES  OF  ALL  NOT  KNOWN,  BUT  ALL  UNDER  TWENTY-ONE  YEARS.) 

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FRIDAY  MORNING,  10:30   O^CLOCK. 
DEVOTIONAL. 

OUE   KESPONSIBILITY. 

BY  MES.  H.  A.  STIMSON, 

New  York  City. 

Holy,  holy,  holy !  Lord  God  Almighty ! 

Early  in  the  morning  our  song  shall  rise  to  thee ; 
Holy,  holy,  holy !  merciful  and  mighty ! 

God  over  all,  and  blest  eternally. 

I  WILL  read  from  the  one  hundred  and  third  Psalm  two 
verses  that  seem  to  have  been  meant  for  families,  for  mothers  and 
their  children — the  thirteenth  and  the  fourteenth  verses: 

"  Like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children,  so  the  Lord  pitieth  them  that  fear 
him. 

"  For  he  knoweth  our  frame ;  he  remembereth  that  we  are  dust." 

The  Lord  does  not  expect  impossibilities  from  us.  "  He 
remembereth  that  we  are  dust,"  and  since  the  foundation  of 
the  world  he  has  known  how  pitifully  weak  and  incompetent 
were  to  be  the  hands  into  which  he  was  to  place  the  great  bless- 
ing and  the  great  responsibility  of  motherhood.  We  are  soon 
to  leave  this  great  meeting.  This  Congress  of  Mothers  will  soon 
resolve  itself  into  a  multitude  of  units,  and  when,  as  individual 
mothers,  we  turn  our  faces  to  our  own  homes,  no  longer  parts 
of  a  Congress,  simply  mothers,  this  thought  will  weigh  heavily 
upon  us,  Who  is  equal  to  the  task  of  carrying  out  the  great  im- 
pulses we  have  here  acquired?  The  burden  of  the  debt  we  owe 
to  humanity,  science,  and  posterity  seems  too  great  to  be  borne. 
13  181 


182  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Let  me  try  to  give  you  one  thought  to  place  alongside  that 
of  weary  helplessness — Wherein  lies  our  responsibility  as  moth- 
ers? We  are  not  responsible  to  the  scientist,  who  with  scalpel, 
retort,  and  microscope  is  beginning,  just  beginning,  to  find  out 
the  beautiful  plans  God  has  had  in  making  this  world  so  fair. 
Nor  is  our  responsibility  to  humanity,  which  with  its  needs 
presses  upon  us  not  only  from  the  "  submerged  "  world,  where 
straight,  fair  souls  oftentimes  dwell  in  crooked  bodies,  but  also 
from  the  privileged  world,  where  too  often,  alas!  the  crooked  soul 
finds  a  home  in  the  fair,  straight  body.  Nor  is  our  responsibility 
even  to  posterity — that  great  word  which  is  apt  to  be  lovingly 
narrowed  by  the  mother  to  mean  the  little  ones  clustering  about 
her  knees.  Our  responsibility  is  to  none  of  these,  but  it  is  to 
God,  and  that  is  the  thought  which  I  would  like  to  leave  with 
you,  that  you  may  take  it  away — the  thought  that  this  responsi- 
bility which  we  have  as  mothers,  whether  we  be  mothers  in  fact, 
or  whether  it  is  just  the  mother  love  within  our  woman  hearts 
that  enables  us  to  mother  all  children,  is  always  to  God,  and 
that  the  eternal  God  is  our  refuge,  and  that  underneath  us,  as 
we  carry  this  burden,  are  his  everlasting  arms. 

We  had  St.  Valentine's  Day  at  our  house  less  than  a  week 
ago,  and  when  I  went  to  my  room  in  the  evening,  there  on 
my  pillow  was  a  little  white  envelope  addressed  to  "  Mamma, 
New  York."  I  opened  it,  and  found  a  very  crude  little  produc- 
tion— a  card  with  a  border  and  a  branch  thrown  across  one 
corner  in  a  very  Japanesque  style,  done  with  a  paint  brush,  and  on 
it,  very  laboriously  printed,  was  this  legend,  "  To  one  I  love." 
I  did  what  every  one  of  you  would  have  done — I  kissed  it. 
According  to  all  recognized  canons  of  criticism,  it  was  not  artis- 
tic, but  it  was  made  for  "  To  one  I  love  ";  and  when  the  little 
one  came  down  in  the  morning,  do  you  think  I  said  to  her,  "  I 
don't  care  for  the  valentine  you  made  for  me;  I  don't  care  for 
valentines  unless  they  are  pretty  ones.  Why  didn't  you  buy  me 
one?  "  No,  you  know  that  I  did  not  say  that.  I  said,  "  Thank 
you,  sweetheart,  for  your  dear  valentine." 

Now  is  the  God,  who  is  Love,  less  loving  to  us  than  we  are 
to  our  children?  Is  he,  whose  love  is  greater  than  all  the  mother 
love  that  has  been  from  the  time  when  the  first  mother  smiled 


OUE  RESPONSIBILITY.  183 

into  the  eyes  of  the  first  baby  down  to  our  own  time,  less  loving 
to  us,  his  children,  than  we  are  to  ours?  And  when  we  bring  to 
him  our  work  with  our  children,  although  it  may  be  clumsy  and 
crude,  or  may  be  done  very  imperfectly,  if  it  is  stamped  with 
the  legend  "  To  one  I  love,"  and  is  done  for  him,  will  he  not 
accept  it,  and  will  he  not  make  our  imperfections  perfect,  as 
we  would  like  to  make  those  of  our  children  had  we  his  power? 
"  Can  a  woman  forget  her  child  that  she  should  not  have  com- 
passion on  him?  Yea,  they  may  forget,  yet  will  not  I  forget 
thee,  saith  the  Lord."  Let  us  pray. 

Dear  Lord,  we  thank  thee  that  thou  hast  taught  us  to  call 
thee  Father;  we  thank  thee  for  the  good  gifts  that  fatherly  love 
.bestows — strength  for  our  weakness,  wisdom  for  our  ignorance, 
courage  for  our  fear.  We  thank  thee  for  the  privilege  of  mother- 
hood; we  thank  thee  for  the  mother  love  throughout  the  world, 
whether  in  parents,  teachers,  or  friends.  Now  we  wait  for  thy 
blessing.  Bless  each  home  here  represented;  may  parents  and 
children  together  be  filled  with  a  holy  reverence  for  things 
holy,  and  a  deep  love  for  all  things  dear  to  thee.  Bless  our 
country;  bless  the  President  of  these  United  States;  bless  our 
lawmakers — give  them  true  hearts  and  wise  brains  to  make  our 
laws.  Bless  the  beautiful,  gracious  mother  whose  presence  adorns 
the  White  House,  and  who  is  soon  to  step  from  the  garish  light 
of  public  life  into  a  beautiful  private  home.  Pour  out  thy  rich- 
est blessing  upon  her  &nd  upon  her  children.  Bless  those  whose 
great  hearts,  wise  brains,  and  tireless  hands  have  made  this 
gathering  possible;  may  their  reward  be  abundant.  And,  dear 
Lord,  support  us  through  the  long  day  of  this  troublous  life 
until  its  shadows  shall  lengthen,  the  evening  comes,  the  busy 
world  be  hushed,  the  fever  of  life  is  over,  and  our  work  done. 
Then  in  thy  mercy  grant  us  a  holy  rest  and  peace  at  the  last, 
in  the  name  of  him  who  has  taught  us  to  pray,  saying: 

Our  Father  which  art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  thy  name. 
Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be  done  in  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven. 
Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread.  And  forgive  us  our  debts  as 
we  forgive  our  debtors.  And  lead  us  not  into  temptation,  but 
deliver  us  from  evil,  for  thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power, 
and  the  glory,  forever.  Amen. 


184  NATIONAL  CONGEESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


HEREDITY. 

BY  MBS.  W.  H.  FELTON, 
Cartersville,  Qa. 

THE  bearing,  nursing,  and  training  of  the  children  who 
must  take  up  the  burdens  of  human  life  after  we  have  passed 
away,  and  carry  on  the  work  which  falls  unfinished  from  our 
lifeless  hands,  are  perforce  the  subjects  of  first  importance  to 
intelligent  and  patriotic  mothers. 

So  long  as  mothers  are  a  necessity  for  the  human  race  these 
subjects  must  retain  vital  interest,  for  whatever  one  may  lack 
in  this  earthly  career,  certain  it  is  we  have  all  been  granted  a 
mother.  Aye,  more;  every  human  being  ushered  into  the  world 
has  been  impressed  in  character,  health,  and  tendency  by  the 
belongings  of  the  mother — her  health,  features,  and  disposition 
— to  a  greater  or  less  degree. 

This  connection  is  manifestly  close  and  intimate.  If  every 
human  life  is  lifted  up  or  lowered  down  by  the  home  that  it  is 
born  into,  we  hazard  nothing  when  we  affirm  that  the  happiness 
and  morals  of  a  child  are  more  immediately  affected  by  the  happi- 
ness and  morals  of  the  parents  than  by  any  other  influence  to 
which  infancy  and  childhood  are  subjected. 

We  are  told  that  the  hand  which  "rocks  the  cradle  rules 
the  world."  I  have  lived  in  this  world  for  a  half  century,  but 
I  find  no  evidence  of  rulership  in  cradle  rocking.  If  it  had  been 
recorded  that  the  hand  which  rocks  the  cradle  bears  the  burdens 
of  the  world,  the  connection  between  the  truth  and  the  poetry 
would  have  been  self-evident  to  all  of  us. 

Mothers  are  emphatically  burden  bearers.-  Mother  love  walks 
hand  in  hand  with  anxiety  and  care.  This  companionship  be- 
tween mother  love  and  apprehension  begins  at  the  cradle,  and 
lingers  at  the  grave  of  the  offspring,  always  solicitous  and 
anxious. 

We  also  know  that  whatever  of  privation,  self-denial,  grief, 
poverty,  or  shame  is  allotted  to  the  household,  the  mother  is 


HEREDITY.  185 

certain  to  take  to  herself  the  lion's  share  of  it.  When  her  child 
suffers  in  health  or  character,  no  one  feels  it  more  keenly  than, 
herself,  and  when  the  law  condemns  its  victim  to  a  violent  death, 
her  poor  knees  are  always  bent  before  the  executive  for  the 
pardon. 

Remembering  the  universality  of  this  rule  of  suffering,  the 
value  of  information,  of  intelligence,  of  keen  insight  into  causes, 
of  the  proper  understanding — especially  of  hereditary  tendencies 
and  evils — must  ever  remain  a  subject  of  vital  interest  to  moth- 
ers so  long  as  children  are  what  they  are — namely,  a  part  and 
parcel  of  the  mother's  own  existence. 

In  this  Congress  of  Mothers,  as  an  organization  designed 
for  instruction,  rises  to  its  full  scope  and  liberty,  the  door  for 
investigation  into  hereditary  taints  and  evils  will  be  opened 
wide  at  every  session,  and  the  world  will  take  a  fresh  start  for 
usefulness,  from  the  standpoint  of  motherhood,  in  relation  to 
its  holiest  duties  and  most  exalted  privileges.  I  made  choice 
of  the  present  subject  not  because  I  could  approach  heredity 
with  the  skill  and  learning  of  the  physician,  nor  because  I  could 
make  plain  to  your  minds  the  process  by  which  "  like  produces 
like  "  in  transmission  from  parent  to  child,  nor  because  I  could 
promise  you  a  remedy  for  hereditary  evils  or  propensities  in 
your  children  or  in  my  own,  but  I  come  only  to  emphasize  the 
importance  of  the  subject,  and  to  encourage  you  to  make  a  seri- 
ous study  of  these  problems  of  human  life  which  have  been 
molding  the  lives  and  characters  of  your  ancestry,  and  which 
will  impress  in  equal  and  perhaps  even  stronger  degree  the  ex- 
istence and  happiness  of  those  to  come  after  you,  reaching  into 
the  cycles  of  eternity. 

The  time  for  enlargement  and  development  has  reached  the 
mother  question.  Human  life  in  all  its  phases  has  felt  the  touch 
of  progress  on  lines  of  mechanical  skill  and  intellectual  effort, 
and  the  public  mind  is  aroused  to  the  fact  that  training  and 
experience  are  essential  to  every  endeavor  in  these  modern 
days.  The  professions  have  raised  a  high  standard  of  excel- 
lence, the  workshops  clamor  for  skill  and  expert  methods, 
but  mothers  have  been  blundering  along  all  these  years  in' 
narrow  paths  and  with  restricted  information  concerning,  mat- 


186  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ters  of  supreme  importance  to  themselves  as  well  as  to  their 
offspring. 

The  paternal  side  of  the  argument  has  been  "  on  tap  "  for 
some  centuries,  good  in  its  way,  but  one-sided  and  decidedly 
topheavy  with  egotism.  Women  have  been  advised  to  "  ask  their 
husbands  "  whenever  there  has  been  a  disposition  to  know  some- 
thing more  of  politics  or  religion.  But  with  due  reverence  for 
high  authority,  I  believe  the  world  has  reached  a  place  where 
a  little  variety  in  argument  and  reasoning  processes  will  be  wel- 
comed from  the  women  of  the  country  by  all  sensible  husbands 
and  fathers.  It  is  becoming  an  established  and  recognized  fact 
.that  children  of  the  same  parents  are  not  elevated  or  degraded 
in  intellect  by  the  accident  of  sex,  and,  as  the  stream  never  rises 
higher  than  its  source,  the  male  mind  can  never  lay  successful 
claim  to  innate  superiority  so  long  as  its  gifts  and  excellencies 
are  an  inheritance  from  the  mother.  Whatever  of  virtue  or 
intellect  or  physical  strength  she  was  able  to  part  with  she  be- 
stowed upon  the  offspring,  and  the  creature  dares  not  to  despise 
the  capacity  of  the  creator. 

But  ignorance  on  such  points  has  been  the  rule  in  woman's 
sphere,  and  enlightenment  the  exception.  I  had  been  a  mother 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  my  mind  was  fully  aroused  to 
the  dangers  that  lie  in  wait  for  the  innocent  and  the  unborn. 
It  so  happened  that  I  became  interested  in  the  statistics  of 
drunkenness  and  general  inebriety.  I  found  an  evil  which  gen- 
erated murderers,  lawbreakers,  suicides,  lunatics,  and  idiots. 
I  could  trace  the  hereditary  taint  in  families.  I  found  a  "  pesti- 
lence that  walked  in  darkness  and  destruction  that  wasted  at 
noonday,"  and  which  had  destroyed .  more  of  the  children  of 
women  than  war,  the  plague,  or  famine.  This  is  not  the  place 
to  record  the  extent  of  this  hereditary  evil  of  intemperance,  but 
I  instance  my  own  ignorance  of  the  subject  during  a  long  period 
of  my  life  merely  to  emphasize  this  awakening  of  mothers  to 
these  conditions  in  the  nineteenth  century.  Because  of  the 
known  existence  of  such  secret,  hidden,  intangible,  and  insidious 
influences,  affecting  the  homes  and  happiness  of  women  and 
their  children,  generally  unknown  to  the  victims  or  sufferers,  I 
venture  into  the  discussion  and  sound  a  note  of  entreaty  and 


HEREDITY.  1S7 

warning.  It  is  simply  astonishing  to  see  the  scrupulous  care 
that  is  taken  to  examine  into  musty  titles  to  real  estate,  while 
people  rush  into  matrimony  without  a  thought  for  the  past  or 
the  future  very  often.  The  contract  for  "  better  or  worse  "  is  a 
literal  one  so  far  as  provision  or  protection  for  the  helpless  is 
concerned. 

It  is  likewise  astonishing  that  people  move  into  new  settle- 
ments or  communities  mostly  for  pecuniary  betterment,  and  yet 
the  fact  remains  that  children  will  mate  or  mismate  in  a  major- 
ity of  instances  with  those  with  whom  they  are  thus  thrown. 
We  will  engage  the  best  legal  talent  to  defend  us  in  litigation 
when  property  is  endangered,  but  the  children  oftentimes  rush 
into  matrimony  without  any  investigation  or  consideration  what- 
ever as  to  past  history  or  entailed  disorders  on  either  side. 

Such  scant  outlook  for  the  past  and  the  future  in  nine  cases 
out  of  ten  brings  in  undesirable  alliances,  to  be  followed  by  rapid 
divorce  proceedings.  "  On  what  feeble  causes  do  our  destinies 
hinge!  "  Stock  breeders  take  no  risk  with  unknown  pedigrees. 
The  successful  florist  is  careful  to  have  pure  seed,  or  fertiliza- 
tion is  thrown  away.  The  fruit  grower  never  expects  perfect 
fruit  unless  under  known  conditions  with  good  stock  to  engraft 
into  his  trees.  But  American  girls  in  many  cases  are  flung  out 
to  capture  money  or  position,  no  matter  if  the  craft  is  a  prey 
to  barnacles  of  the  most  destructive  character. 

To  my  mind  there  is  nothing  so  pleasing  in  Nature  or  art 
as  the  young  mother's  smile  for  her  first  born.  When  the  little 
one  returns  the  smile,  there  is  a  holy  light  in  her  eyes  that  is 
not  found  on  land  or  sea. 

Yet  that  young  mother  may  carry  disease  in  her.  own  phys- 
ical system,  or  the  father  of  the  child  may  have  infected  the 
child  before  its  birth  with  enough  of  hereditary  evil  to  disease 
it  for  life  or  make  its  existence  a  misery  to  others. 

It  is  a  fearful  responsibility  to  become  a  parent!  Man  is  fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made,  but  among  the  dangers  and  the 
wonders  none  are  so  great  as  the  transmission  of  hereditary  traits 
and  propensities  from  parent  to  child. 

The  curse  that  follows  to  the  third  and  fourth  generation 
must  perforce  be  an  inherited  curse.  Thanks  be  to  God!  he 


188  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

has  promised  to  show  mercy  unto  thousands  who  live  upright  and 
keep  his  commandments! 

One  of  the  most  effective  paintings  I  ever  saw  was  on  exhibi- 
tion at  the  Philadelphia  Centennial.  Perhaps  you  all  remember 
it.  Rizpah  standing  on  the  rock,  keeping  watch  over  her  dead 
sons,  hanged  by  the  Gibeonites  because  they  were  also  the  sons 
of  King  Saul.  That  picture  of  hopeless,  fierce  mother  love  fas- 
tened itself  upon  my  memory.  It  is  a  fearful  thing  to  know  that 
innocence  and  helplessness  must  suffer  because  of  the  sins  of 
the  fathers — and,  yes,  of  the  mothers  likewise. 

I  measure  my  words  in  the  sight  of  Heaven  when  I  say  that 
every  child  born  into  this  unfriendly  world  should  have  a  clean 
home  to  be  born  into,  with  clear  blood  in  its  veins,  or  that  help- 
less innocent  should  not  come  here  at  all.  It  comes  without  its 
own  consent.  It  has  no  "  say  so  "  in  this  forced  existence.  The 
vices  that  germinate  in  unbridled  passion,  unholy  living,  and 
filthy  appetite  are  surely  transmitted  to  the  unborn.  "  Woe  unto 
them  by  whom  offenses  come!  " 

And  it  is  rank  injustice  to  pure  mother  love,  which  goes 
down  into  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death  to  give  life  to  an 
immortal  being,  that  this  child  of  her  devotion  and  self-sacrifice 
should  be  loaded  down  to  the  gunwales  with  ancestral  failings 
before  its  eyes  open  to  the  light  of  day.  When  that  poor  mother 
finds  the  agony  greater  than  she  can  bear,  and  her  soul  floats 
out  into  the  unknown,  what  a  mercy  it  is  when  the  little  one 
goes  with  her  before  it  takes  up  the  unequal  burdens  of  life, 
bereft  of  its  mother's  love  and  her  watchful  care! 

Therefore  the  protection  of  motherhood  becomes  the  high- 
est obligation  of  mankind  to  the  human  race.  There  should  be 
a  living,  ever-active  sense  of  responsibility.  The  courts  should 
shield  this  high  and  holy  estate  of  motherhood  as  they  protect 
no  other  party  or  principle.  The  pulpit  should  thunder  in  the 
ears  of  indifferent  and  careless  citizens,  and  husbands  and  fathers 
should  resolve  that  whatever  else  may  need  protection,  the 
mother  and  the  infant  deserve  first  mention  and  most  extraor- 
dinary care. 

When  we  remember  that  every  sudden  shock,  excited  nerve., 
painful  thought,  cruel  treatment,  or  harsh  word  is  felt  and  im- 


HEREDITY.  189 

pressed  upon  an  innocent  life,  that  the  mother  would  almost  die 
to  save  from  evil  and  disease,  the  magnitude  of  this  obligation 
in  regard  to  childbearing  assumes  its  proper  proportions. 

Excessive  mental  strain  is  known  to  produce  nervous  dis- 
eases in  the  offspring.  Neurotic  children  become  victims  to 
convulsions,  epilepsy,  and  idiocy.  When  nerve  cells  are  once 
destroyed,  they  are  never  developed  again.  There  may  be  dis- 
eases not,  strictly  speaking,  inherited,  but  if  the  child  has  an 
"  irritable,  unstable,  inadequately  developed,  and  badly  nour- 
ished system,  the  tendency  to  disease  may  be  inherited."  Among 
inherited  diseases  we  find  consumption,  cancer,  scrofula,  goitre, 
and  kindred  ailments.  These  are  handed  down  to  posterity  more 
surely  than  gold  or  lands.  It  would  be  a  most  un welcome  revela- 
tion to  see  what  sort  of  possessions  are  inherited  not  set  down 
in  the  financial  inventory  when  wills  and  "  last  testaments  "  are 
recorded  in  court. 

I  believe  the  time  must  come  when  the  nation  in  self-defense 
will  place  a  limit  upon  the  propagation  of  diseased  men  and 
women,  because  of  expense  to  the  state.  When  diseased  phys- 
ical and  moral  beings  are  crowded  into  confined  quarters,  their 
offspring  are  the  output  of  a  hotbed  of  sin  and  physical  decay. 
Local  restrictions  already  prevail  concerning  consanguinity. 
Already  your  property  is  assessed  to  provide  education  for  the 
ignorant  as  a  protection  to  the  state  against  crime  and  the  dis- 
eases that  attend  debased  life.  "  An  ounce  of  prevention  is 
worth  a  pound  of  cure."  When  the  state  pays  for  care,  why  not 
pay  for  prevention? 

Motherhood,  after  it  obtains  insight,  after  investigation  into 
inherited  sins  and  diseases,  shrinks  with  horror  from  such  entail- 
ment  upon  its  children.  I  can  discover  no  remedy  but  a  rooting 
out  of  exciting  causes.  It  is  the  common-sense  remedy  that 
holds  good  in  all  places,  in  public  or  private  business.  We  need 
constant  reminders  of  the  dangers  that  assail  us  in  this  direc- 
tion. We  must  as  patriots  and  philanthropists  take  a  broader 
view  of  the  duty  we  owe  to  the  wretched  and  unfortunate.  Poul- 
ticing and  plasters  are  good  as  palliatives,  but  the  world  needs  a 
revival  of  interest  in  true  woman's  work,  and  every  energy  of 
the  best  minds  and  most  prudent  judgments  will  find  occupa- 


190  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

tion  in  removing  the  propagating  germs  of  sin,  disease,  and  crime 
from  the  mother  and  her  offspring  in  every  locality. 

No  well-informed  or  fair-minded  person  can  look  upon  the 
human  wrecks  that  are  strewn  upon  a  storm-swept  shore  without 
asking  the  question,  What  would  I  have  been  if  my  forefathers 
and  foremothers  had  flung  sobriety  and  decent  living  to  the 
winds,  and  brought  me  into  a  world  of  sin  and  error  loaded 
down  with  hereditary  evils  and  unhappy  environment?  There- 
fore my  mother  heart  grows  tender  to  the  frail,  soiled  dove  in 
last  night's  station  house.  Therefore  my  soul  sympathizes  with 
the  poor  sin-soaked  boy  in  the  penitentiary.  If  one  half  the 
energy  and  zeal  which  is  displayed  in  convicting  and  punishing 
criminals  had  been  expended  in  removing  temptation  and  the 
sink  holes  of  perdition  from  their  vicinity,  my  word  for  it  we 
would  find  ourselves  in  more  satisfactory  business  and  with 
marked  decrease  in  crime  and  misery.  I  am  not  able  to  draw 
a  dividing  line  between  the  evil  inclinations  which  were  inocu- 
lated and  those  of  their  own  devices.  How  will  we  account  for 
the  epidemic  of  suicides  which  is  devastating  our  own  country 
if  we  do  not  give  full  weight  to  the  influence  of  these  hopeless 
and  inexorable  "  curses  "  that  "  follow  to  the  third  and  fourth 
generation  "  ?  The  fathers  ate  sour  grapes  and  the  children's 
teeth  are  on  edge! 

I  believe  the  Almighty  Father  is  too  wise  to  err — "  too  good 
to  be  unkind  " — but  among  the  rewards  and  punishments  that 
will  be  finally  meted  out  I  am  satisfied  blame  will  fall  in  many 
places,  and  mercy  will  comfort  their  many  victims,  where  least 
was  promised  to  mortal  vision,  because  the  latter  class  were  more 
sinned  against  than  sinning. 

There  can  be  no 'more  valuable  information  vouchsafed  to 
human  minds  than  a  proper  understanding  of  the  influences  that 
attend  the  problems  of  heredity.  As  mothers,  we  have  been  dis- 
inclined to  take  our  own  children  into  our  confidence  in  these 
important  matters.  There  must  be  a  proper  way  to  interest  even 
a  little  child  in  the  history  of  its  own  life  without  detriment  to 
innocence  or  embarrassment  to  the  parent.  There  is  nothing 
offensive  in  purity.  There  can  be  nothing  vulgar  in  innocence. 

If  the  young  maidens  of  our  land  could  understand  the  duties 


HEREDITY.  191 

and  obligations  of  married  life  before,  as  well  as  afterward,  there 
would  be  less  haste  in  matrimony  and  fewer  unhappy  marriages.. 
The  prevalence  of  divorces  is  largely  owing  to  ignorance  of  the 
duties  and  obligations  of  married  life  before  the  contract  is 
entered  into.  I  know  of  nothing  more  loveworthy  than  a  pure- 
hearted  maiden,  nor  anything  more  pitiable  than  her  unhappi- 
ness  when  she  finds  her  idol  only  common  clay,  an  instrument 
of  torture  to  her  life  of  disappointment  and  despair,  to  be  re- 
flected in  the  lives  and  habits  of  her  own  offspring  forever- 
more. 

Children  would  most  like  be  interested  in  precautions  against 
ill-mated  unions  before  the  tide  of  youthful  passion  rises  high 
in  their  own  affections.  Experience  proves  they  will  risk  any- 
thing afterward.  Marriage  is  called  a  lottery.  That  the  children 
of  loving  mothers  must  throw  dice  for  the  uncertain  prize  is  a 
sad  commentary  upon  either  our  own  intelligence  or  general 
indifference  to  their  own  fate. 

We  owe  it  to  ourselves  as  well  as  those  who  come  after  us  to 
make  diligent  search  for  these  hereditary  tendencies  to  evil  and 
disease.  Once  found,  there  should  be  no  hesitation  in  Avarring 
against  them,  turning  every  energy  toward  a  remedy  and  relief. 
I  hold  the  opinion  that  an  organization  of  mothers  will  evince 
more  of  resolution  and  endeavor  on  this  line  than  any  other 
class.  While  the  influence  of  a  good  mother  in  her  home  is 
beneficent  and  uplifting,  an  organization  or  union  of  mothers 
will  add  force  to  inquiry  and  strength  to  aid  and  influence  public 
opinion.  Fifty  years  from  now  the  country  will  look  back  upon 
a  generation  which  raised  revenues  from  the  debauchery  of  its 
citizens  with  disgust  and  contempt.  In  less  time  pure-hearted 
mothers  will  wonder  why  a  little  ten-year-old  girl  in  Georgia 
was  considered  able  to  protect  her  virtue  from  the  libertine  in 
the  eyes  of  the  law  of  the  sovereign  State.  To  those  who  tell 
me  that  fathers  and  husbands  are  fully  competent  to  protect  such 
children  from  the  public,  licensed  dramshop  and  the  wiles  of  evil 
men,  I  can  only  reply  that  with  ample  opportunity,  within  more 
than  one  hundred  years  of  free  government,  to  make  changes 
and  promote  the  happiness  and  protect  the  lives  and  character 
of  these  victims  (all  of  whom  had  once  a  mother),  yet  these 


192  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

enormities  in  legislation  still  remain  in  force  upon  the  statute 
books. 

Mothers,  we  know,  are  held  responsible  in  large  measure  for 
the  characters  and  conduct  of  their  offspring.  It  would  seem 
foolish  to  remain  silent  or  inactive  any  longer  with  such  responsi- 
bility pressing  upon  mind  and  heart.  Organization  and  union 
offer  an  opportunity  for  better  influences,  and  in  behalf  of  these 
effective  agencies  I  welcome  free  discussion  of  the  duties  and 
obligations  of  motherhood  as  a  class  touching  such  vital  questions 
as  these. 

It  is  not  likely  we  will  ever  be  wiser  in  regard  to  the  subtle 
force  which  transmits  hereditary  tendencies  to  the  unborn  child. 
I  find  a  tiny  spark  of  green  on  the  wall  during  these  bright 
spring  days.  Directly  I  find  a  perfect  leaf  and  tiny  flower. 
Last  year  the  same  phenomenon  occurred.  Perhaps  the  same 
will  occur  so  long  as  the  wall  will  last.  Each  year  the  new  seed 
plant  is  a  copy  of  the  one  that  perished  under  wintry  gales  and 
snow.  I  know  nothing  of  the  transmission  of  life  save  the  annual 
reappearance,  followed  by  decay,  but  I  know  it  to  be  the  same  in 
purpose. 

I  simply  know  there  is  reproduction  in  plant  life  and  in 
animal  life.  I  know  "  like  produces  like.7'  I  also  know  there 
can  be  no  more  important  affairs  in  the  lives  of  women  than  a 
study  of  their  own  existence  as  related  to  the  future  of  their 
children.  Beaching  as  it  does  to  the  beginning  of  the  race  in 
one  direction,  it  extends  to  the  cycles  of  eternity  in  the  other. 
It  would  appear  to  be  a  subject  that  even  the  angels  would  de- 
sire to  look  into.  Mothers  have  every  right  to  investigation,  to 
inquiry.  You  have  doubtless  seen  the  motto,  "  She  is  only  half 
a  mother  who  does  not  see  her  own  child  in  every  child,  her 
own  child's  grief  in  every  pain  which  makes  another  child  weep." 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  193 


PHYSICAL  CULTUKE. 

BY  Miss  JULIA  KING, 
Of  the  Faculty  of  the  Emerson  College  of  Oratory,  Boston,  Mass. 

A  REQUEST  was  sent  to  the  Emerson  College  of  Oratory  in 
Boston  for  some  one  to  present  before  this  National  Congress  of 
Mothers  some  thoughts  on  proper  physical  culture.  In  the 
absence  of  President  Emerson,  whose  duties  in  connection  with 
this  very  large  institution  were  too  numerous  to  permit  of  his 
being  present  to-day,  it  is  my  great  privilege  and  honor,  as  a 
member  of  the  faculty  of  that  college,  to  speak  for  Dr.  Emerson, 
and  to  reveal  as  I  may  some  of  the  truths  which  that  philoso- 
pher, scholar,  and  teacher  is  daily  giving  to  the  world. 

The  special  subject  under  consideration  is  The  Eelation  of 
Proper  Physical  Culture  to  the  Health  and  Morals  of  the  Home, 
or  perhaps  I  would  better  say,  The  Eelation  of  Proper  Physical 
Culture  to  Character.  The  thoughts  which  I  shall  present  are  not 
theories  born  of  my  mind;  they  are  universal  laws,  which  Dr. 
Emerson  has  applied  to  the  study  of  physical  culture.  These  laws, 
which  underlie  the  Emerson  system,  have  been  practiced  for 
more  than  twenty  years  not  only  by  the  originator  himself,  but 
by  thousands  of  students  who  have  gone  forth  from  the  Emer- 
son College  of  Oratory  to  preach  and  teach  the  gospel  of  personal 
development;  and  it  is  because  of  the  marvelous  results  in 
health,  in  intellectual  attainment,  and  in  moral  and  spiritual 
enlightenment  that  I  feel  a  pleasure  in  announcing  on  this  occa- 
sion some  of  these  principles. 

There  is  now  in  progress  a  great  reformation  in  respect  to 
the  study  of  physical  culture.  The  idea  that  the  body  is  to  be 
educated  is  sweeping  over  the  country  like  a  tidal  wave.  When 
I  read  in  Scripture,  "  We  wait,  namely,  for  the  redemption  of 
our  bodies,"  which  was  uttered  by  the  great  Apostle,  I  wonder 
if  it  was  a  prophecy  of  this  day?  Was  the  waiting  that  of  wait- 
ing for  a  higher  realization  of  Christianity  in  its  effect  upon  the 


194  NATIONAL  COXGEESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

human  body?  Physical  culture  is  one  of  the  helps  in  realizing 
in  the  conduct  of  life  the  teaching  of  Christianity.  We  will  con- 
sider some  tests  which  may  be  applied  to  whatever  any  one  has 
named  physical  culture,  and  present  as  a  fundamental  proposi- 
tion that  a  true  system  of  physical  culture  properly  taught  aids 
in  building  up  ideal  character. 

I.  Through  its  effect  upon  the  health,  for  in  the  nature  of 
things  health  affects  character.  It  was  once  thought  that  health 
was  not  favorable  to  spirituality,  but  times  have  been  slowly 
changing.  Light  is  breaking  as  the  morning  of  civilization  and 
general  culture  advances.  We  are  beginning  to  see  things  in  a 
new  way,  that  illness  comes  as  a  natural  consequence  of  a  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  God,  and  not  as  a  special  dispensation  of 
Providence. 

Let  us  notice  some  of  the  ways  in  which  health  tends  to 
moral  conduct. 

a.  In  the  first  place,  health  gives  self-reliance  to  its  pos- 
sessor, and  thereby  frees  her  from  many  temptations  which  beset 
the  weak.  Illness  subjects  one  to  temptation.  It  is  said  that  as 
soon  as  the  human  body  is  devitalized  to  a  certain  degree  there 
is  a  manifest  presence  of  microbes,  which  produce  no  end  of  dis- 
ease and  misery.  It  is  certainly  true  that  as  soon  as  the  physical 
system  is  devitalized  to  a  certain  extent  innumerable  temptations 
enter,  to  which  one  is  in  great  danger  of  submitting  and  thus 
losing  the  life  of  character. 

Mr.  Beecher  once  said:  "  A  man  in  health  can  resist  tempta- 
tion much  easier  than  a  man  who  is  ill.  He  can  fling  it  off;  it 
attacks  him,  but  his  vitality  resists  it.  You  drop  some  water  on 
a  stove  that  is  neither  hot  nor  cold,  and  it  sizzles  and  fries  and 
sizzles  and  fries.  Let  the  stove  be  red  hot  and  drop  some  water 
on  it,  and  it  bounds  away  with  a  snort."  Health  resists  tempta- 
tion. Self-reliance  is  a  sustainer  of  moral  rectitude.  A  person 
who  lacks  it,  being  conscious  of  weakness,  begins  to  look  around 
for  means  of  sustaining  self  through  other  than  personal  effort. 
It  deprives  one  of  generosity;  it  develops  envy.  A  person  who 
has  been  sick  a  great  while  is  ever  asking  others  to  do  for  him. 
He  can  not  help  it.  Weakness  always  begs;  strength  always 
gives. 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  195 

&.  Again,  health  of  body  leads  to  equanimity  of  mind.  We 
are  hardly  aware  of  how  much  the  state  of  our  nerves  affects 
our  minds.  You  say  such  a  person  is  a  very  uncomfortable 
person  to  live  with,  she  is  very  fretful  and  very  irritable;  but  if 
you  could,  with  something  keener  than  the  microscopic  eye,  look 
at  the  nerves  of  that  fretful,  irritable  individual,  you  would 
discover  that  the  cause  of  that  irritability  is  in  the  condition  of 
the  nervous  system  and  not  in  the  disposition.  John  Wesley 
said,  "  A  great  many  people  pass  for  possessing  a  very  bad  temper 
when  their  tempers  are  really  very  good,  but  their  nervous  sys- 
tems are  very  irritable,  and  therefore  their  evil  tempers  are  to 
be  attributed  to  physical  disease  rather  than  to  moral  disorder." 
Oh,  who  has  not  felt  the  truth  and  justice  of  this  remark  in  her 
own  life  and  experience? 

c.  Again,  health  tends  to  promote  normal  propensities.  Ab- 
normal propensities  are  often  developed  from  disease. 

II.  Proper  physical  culture  gives  a  moral  direction  to  the 
intellectual  activities  by  interesting  the  mind  in  the  study  of 
Nature's  laws.     All  the  exhibitions  of  Nature  are  governed  by 
law,  absolute,  universal,  and  intelligible.     The  most  inspiring 
knowledge  of  Nature's  laws,  and  that  which  creates  the  impulse 
of  obedience  to  them,  is  to  be  derived  from  a  proper  study  of 
physical  culture.    Nature's  laws  are  above  all  mortal  authorities, 
and  they  deal  with  people  in  accordance  with  their  obedience. 
They  are  as  omnipotent  in  regard  to  health  as  they  are  in  regard 
to  chemistry.     It  is  the  cultivation  of  the  intellect  that  enables 
one  to  perceive  these  laws.    This  leads  us  to  notice  that  the  study 
of  physical  culture  opens  a  wide  field  for  intellectual  develop- 
ment, and  such  study  promotes  character.     The  truths  of  Na- 
ture lead,  as  tbe  poet  said  long  ago,  to  Nature's  God. 

III.  Again,  the  study  of  physical  culture  leads  to  character 
through  establishing  in  the  mind  proper  ideals  of  beauty.     It  is 
a  practical  way  of  studying  the  science  of  assthetics.     The  laws 
of  aesthetics  applied  to  the  human  body  and  the  laws  of  health 
are  proved  beyond  all  question  to  be  one.    Let  us  apply  the  laws 
of  aesthetics  to  dress.  You  say  a  young  lady  is  beautifully  dressed. 
From  what  criteria  do  you  measure  when  you  say  this?     From 
the  criteria  of  the  principles  of  aesthetics  or  from  the  criteria  of 


196  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

the  fashions  of  the  season?  Fashions  change  four  times  a  year, 
if  not  oftener,  but  the  principles  of  aesthetics  never  change. 
There  are  certain  laws  of  beauty,  the  violation  of  which  offends 
the  highest  sensibilities  of  the  soul.  One  must  study  the  ideal 
in  human  form,  and  avoid  as  far  as  possible  violating  this  ideal 
in  dress. 

IV.  Again,  there  is  a  direct  relation  of  a  proper  system  of 
physical  culture  to  character.  The  fundamental  principle  in  a 
perfect  system  is  this,  that  the  body  is  the  servant  of  the  soul, 
and  was  made,  with  its  complex  structure,  to  obey  its  mandates, 
and  that  system  of  physical  culture  which  does  not  teach  this  is 
not  a  proper  system.  Some  people  call  every  kind  of  artificial 
exercise  physical  culture.  Now  all  forms  of  exercise  are  not  exer- 
cises in  physical  culture.  Nothing  can  be  said  to  be  true  physical 
culture  which  does  not  recognize,  theoretically  and  practically, 
this  principle,  that  the  body  is  the  servant  of  the  soul;  and 
therefore,  if  one  would  know  the  proper  uses  of  the  body  and 
how  it  should  be  educated,  she  must  know  the  purposes  of  the 
soul.  Physical  culture  leads  to  the  study  of  morals;  to  the  study 
of  man  as  a  spiritual  being;  to  the  study  of  the  possibilities  of 
the  soul;  and  the  proper  study  of  the  soul  leads  to  this  conclu- 
sion, that  the  chief  end  of  every  one  in  this  world  is  to  influence 
others  by  precept  and  by  example  toward  higher  states  of  being. 
A  study  of  physical  culture  which  does  not  recognize  the  high 
mission  of  man  to  man  and  the  high  relation  of  man  to  God  is 
not  a  proper  system  of  physical  culture. 

Some  say  that  all  physical  culture  should  aim  to  exercise 
the  body  as  it  is  exercised  in  manual  labor.  In  your  study  in 
English  is  it  not  for  the  ideal  rather  than  the  common  that  you 
study?  Would  you  call  that  study  culture  that  studies  merely 
for  the  actual ?  No!  Culture  aims  at  the  expression  of  the  high- 
est perceptions  and  ideals  of  the  mind  when  that  mind  is  en- 
lightened. There  is  a  great  difference  between  physical  culture 
and  athletic  exercises,  such  as  jumping,  leaping,  lifting,  walk- 
ing on  one's  hands,  when  it  is  natural  for  one  to  walk  on  his 
feet.  Such  exercises  do  not  train  the  body  to  express  the  soul, 
consequently  they  should  not  be  called  culture.  The  soul  loves, 
and  the  body  should  express  it;  the  soul  is  benevolent,  and  the 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  197 

body  should  express  it;  the  soul  is  noble,  and  the  body  should 
express  it.  The  body  should  be  taught  to  express  the  complete 
mastery  of  the  appetites  and  passions  by  the  moral  sense.  See 
how  the  proper  conduct  of  life  is  introduced  in  true  physical 
culture. 

Man  in  his  nature  gravitates  two  ways;  while  his  body  gravi- 
tates toward  the  center  of  the  earth  his  soul  gravitates  toward  the 
throne  of  God.  A  proper  system  of  physical  culture  should  grow 
out  of  the  necessities  of  man  as  a  spiritual  being,  and  not  the 
necessities  of  man  as  a  drudge  or  a  warrior.  Some  of  the  modern 
ideas  of  physical  culture  originated  in  the  thought  of  training 
of  soldiers  that  they  might  better  endure  the  fatigues  of  war. 
General  culture  calls  for  higher  ideas  which  shall  meet  the  needs 
of  civil  life.  The  exercises  that  were  introduced  for  the  train- 
ing of  soldiers  were  made  for  a  contentious  world,  for  a  fighting 
world,  for  a  bloodshedding  world;  and  now  when  the  various 
nations  of  the  earth  are  considering  Arbitration  vs.  War,  which 
if  it  succeeds  will  do  away  with  war,  where  will  be  the  physical- 
culture  systems  that  have  been  inaugurated  for  the  purpose  of 
making  soldiers?  Man  lives  not  to  kill  his  brother,  but  to  help 
him  to  live.  Slowly  the  wheel  of  reformation  rolls  on,  and  as 
it  turns  there  is  hurled  from  it  many  scintillations  and  much 
dust  of  past  ages. 

V.  Then  we  may  ask  at  this  point,  What  are  believed  to  be 
some,  at  least,  of  the  higher  states  of  mind  which  the  body  should 
express?  The  first  state  of  mind  the  body  should  express  is 
Reverence.  The  fundamental  principle  that  is  involved  in  the 
word  "  expression  "  is  pressing  out  what  is  within.  Therefore, 
if  I  am  to  express  reverence,  I  must  experience  this  state  of  mind 
or  I  can  not  express  it. 

The  second  state  of  mind  which  the  body  should  express 
is  Benevolence.  The  body  was  made  to  express,  by  deed  and 
by  manner,  this  captain  of  all  the  faculties,  propensities,  pas- 
sions, and  sentiments  of  the  human  soul.  Selfishness  is  not 
the  natural  captain  of  all  the  faculties,  though  it  sometimes 
mutinously  resists  the  captain;  but  by  and  by,  when  the  ship 
rights  herself,  and  the  gale  that  bent  it  low  is  past  and  she  again 

rides  the  crest,  the  true  captain  commands. 
14 


198  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

VI.  A  proper  system  of  physical  culture  should  train  the 
body  to  express  freedom  through  obedience  to  divinity.  No  one 
is  free  until  the  will,  guided  by  reason  and  inspired  by  love  for 
all  conscious  being,  governs  life.  A  proper  system  of  physical 
culture,  then,  calls  for  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  develop- 
ment, for  it  does  not  recognize  the  body  as  a  separate  entity,  but 
as  the  expressive  agent  of  being.  It  fits  man  to  be  a  worthy  citi- 
zen; it  educates  him  to  be  a  member  of  a  family,  and  nothing 
is  higher  than  this.  Nothing  in  the  world  is  higher  than  that 
to  which  the  word  "  home  "  points.  Our  hymns  sometimes  sug- 
gest this  by  saying  Heaven  is  my  Home.  Those  who  do  not  aim  to 
make  their  homes  "  heaven  "  are  not  fit  for  any  heaven,  and  will 
never  find  one  until  they  improve.  The  Church  is  a  holy  place, 
but  the  Church  is  the  servant  of  the  home,  and  in  the  ratio  it  is 
a  Christian  Church  it  is  such  a  servant,  because  it  tends  to  make 
men  and  women  fit  to  live  together  in  homes. 

Some  object  to  women  seeking  higher  education  on  the 
ground  that  their  place  is  at  home  with  husband  and  children. 
If  I  should  meet  a  robin  in  its  wanderings,  and  say  to  her, 
"  Robin,  why  are  you  not  in  your  nest?  "  the  reply  would  be, 
"  I  have  come  out  for  that  with  which  I  may  benefit  my  nest." 
The  question  of  domesticity  is  not  this:  Is  one  always  in  that  spot 
called  home?  The  question  is,  ^Vhat  is  she  when  there,  and 
when  she  is  away  of  what  is  she  in  pursuit  to  carry  to  that  home? 
She  should  fill  the  home  with  the  atmosphere  of  health  and  spir- 
itual beauty,  and  all  the  breadth  and  richness  of  character  which 
are  developed  from  a  real  culture  of  her  whole  being  as  woman. 
When  I  speak  of  home  I  feel  I  am  standing  upon  holy  ground, 
and  it  almost  stops  my  speech,  because  I  feel  that  no  words  which 
I  can  say  are  fitting  with  which  to  represent  the  mission  of  home 
to  the  race.  In  the  nature  of  things  it  is  destined  to  be  the  high- 
est school  possible  to  human  beings,  but  that  it  may  be  so  those 
who  help  to  make  that  home  must  approach  the  ideal  in  char- 
acter. They  must  carry  health  to  that  home,  and  not  groaning 
sickness.  They  should  be  able  to  make  health  glow  in  that 
home,  and  not  darken  it  by  a  shadow  of  disease.  They  should 
carry  hope,  high  moral  sentiment,  and  beneficence,  which  sweet- 
ens the  very  atmosphere.  Oh,  think  not  merely  of  whether  your 


PHYSICAL  CULTURE.  199 

sons  and  daughters  are  to  teach  physical  culture  as  a  profession! 
This  may  follow  as  an  incident,  but  think  of  something  higher. 
What  will  it  do  for  them  as  inmates  of  the  home?  Some  say, 
"  My  daughter  shall  learn  to  play  the  piano."  That  is  right, 
that  is  beautiful;  it  makes  home  more  pleasant,  as  the  birds 
do  when  they  sing.  It  is  a  good  thing,  although  I  am  sorry  to 
say  that  nine  tenths  neglect  it  as  soon  as  they  have  a  home  of 
their  own.  Father,  perhaps,  as  a  part  of  the  dower,  gives  a  fine 
new  piano  to  grace  the  home,  but  the  piano  is  silent  forever- 
more.  Other  music  takes  the  place,  sweeter  in  some  respects,  if 
not  as  harmonious. 

Now  those  who  make  the  new  music  need  health,  intelli- 
gence, refinement.  They  need  the  presence  of  a  mother  whose 
every  movement  is  grace,  whose  every,  point  of  bearing  is  dignity. 
The  presence  of  such  a  mother,  though  she  be  silent  in  words, 
is  a  liberal  education,  for  a  great  man  or  a  great  woman,  a  true 
man  or  a  true  woman  does  more  for  the  elevation  of  children 
and  the  race  by  presence  than  they  can  do  by  words  or  mere 
acts.  As  Emerson  says,  "  What  you  are  so  roars  and  thunders 
above  your  head  I  can  not  hear  you  speak."  "  Put  off  thy 
shoes  from  off  thy  feet,  for  the  place  whereon  thou  standest  is 
holy  ground."  In  autumn  I  never  see  a  bush  burning  with  fire 
that  does  not  consume  but  I  feel,  "  This  is  holy  ground."  If 
a  bush  burning  with  the  colors  and  the  splendors  with  which 
autumn  can  paint  it,  or  with  which  a  miracle  can  surround  it,  is 
a  holy  thing,  how  much  more  so  is  the  place  hallowed  by  the 
presence  of  the  soul  which  is  the  tabernacle  of  God?  If  a  bush 
can  express  divinity  by  its  colors  of  fire,  how  much  more  can 
the  presence  of  the  souls  of  men  and  women  concerning  which 
the  inspired  writer  heard  a  great  voice  out  of  heaven  saying, 
"  The  tabernacle  of  God  is  with  men  "?  What  can  be  more  holy 
than  the  human  body  in  which  dwells  the  Spirit  of  God,  and 
therefore,  according  to  Scripture,  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy 
Spirit,  for  the  inspired  writer  says,  "  Know  ye  not  that  your 
body  is  the  temple  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ?  "  A  proper  system  of 
physical  culture  leads  directly  to  the  development  of  divinity  in 
human  beings,  fitting  the  body  to  be  the  temple  of  the  Most 
High. 


200  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


CHAEACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION. 

BY  MRS.  ELLEN  A.  RICHARDSON, 
Boston,  Mass. 

MADAM  PRESIDENT,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN:  In  coming 
before  you  with  the  subject  Character  Building  in  Education,  I 
can  only  sura  up  all  the  methods  which  have  been  presented  in 
lights  and  shades  by  the  previous  speakers;  I  stand  here  simply 
to  point  to  the  arching  sky  overhead,  and  to  lead  your  minds 
to  place  properly  the  facts  brought  before  you  in  a  picture 
which  the  members  of  this  Congress  will  hang  on  memory's 
chambers.  Of  all  these  facts  each  of  you,  of  course,  will  select 
for  the  foreground  of  your  memory  picture  those  which  stand 
out  the  strongest  to  you  from  this  sincere  conference.  I  will 
not  linger  over  the  details  of  the  composition,  but  rather  seek 
to  lift  your  thoughts  to  the  overarching  heavens,  and  if  I  suc- 
ceed in  impressing  upon  you  that  you  are  building  this  arch 
daily,  I  shall  have  succeeded  in  some  measure  in  speaking  to  a 
purpose  upon  Character  Building  in  Education. 

Note  that  I  say  character  in  education,  instead  of  character 
as  apart  from  education.  Dr.  Buchanan,  a  pioneer  reformer  in 
education,  says,  "  Education  is  the  training  of  the  soul  and  body 
to  act  together  harmoniously,  obeying  all  the  interrelative  laws." 
Dr.  Emerson,  President  of  the  College  of  Oratory  in  Boston, 
defines  character  to  be  "  quantity  of  being."  We  can  find  no 
higher  authority  to-day  than  these  two  men,  each  being  in  his 
personality  the  fulfilling  of  the  definitions  given  by  both.  In 
Dr.  Harris,  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  we 
have  also  an  eminently  wise  leader  in  all  educational  interests, 
who  works  for  character  in  education  and  to  increase  the  moral 
force  of  every  intelligent  being.  In  many  cities  the  schools 
for  manual  training  and  the  kindergartens — bless  them! — are 
doing  so  much  for  the  harmonious  unfoldment  and  development 


CHARACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION.  201 

of  character  that  we  see  the  dawn  of  brighter  days,  when  think- 
ers shall  take  the  places  of  puppets,  and  originators  shall  take 
the  place  of  imitators.  How  much  the  next  generation  will  owe 
to  such  women  as  Mrs.  Quincy  Shaw,  of  Boston,  the  late  Mrs. 
Cooper,  of  San  Francisco,  Mrs.  Phebe  Hearst,  of  Washington, 
and  all  others  who  are  aiding  in  work  which  increases  the  powers 
of  being,  in  the  mental  and  moral  weight,  by  the  character  build- 
ing in  kindergarten  training. 

The  spirit  which  prompted  the  call  for  this  Congress  of 
Mothers  is  along  the  same  line  of  progress.  As  I  understand  its 
motive,  it  is  to  study  life  development.  What  for?  That  we 
shall  grow  bodies  abounding  in  health  and  physical  strength? 

Yes,  for  this,  since  the  temple  of  the  soul  must  furnish 
proper  physical  conditions,  and  for  more,  much  more;  it  is  that 
dying  we  may  by  quantity  and  quality  of  being 

.  .  .  leave  behind  us 
Footprints  on  the  sands  of  time, 

which  shall  contribute  to  the  whole  sum  of  a  growth  upward 
to  the  highest  possible  character  of  the  one  grand  man  and  the 
great  future. 

If  we  could  only  realize  and  be  more  mindful  of  the  subtle 
influences  which  ripple  from  our  lives  on  the  sea  of  time,  ever 
widening  beyond  human  ken,  even  as  a  stone  dropped  into  the 
lake  and  lost  to  sight  in  a  moment  leaves  the  influence  of  its 
passing  on  the  surface  in  the  beautiful  circles,  displacing  gently 
each  particle  of  water  into  wider  and  widening  circumferences. 
This  is  a  common  comparison,  but  none  better  describes  the 
absolute  and  delicate  effect  of  the  character  of  the  individual 
upon  all  life,  and  emphasizes  more  the  responsibility  of  parents 
and  teachers  as  character  builders. 

We  hear  a  great  deal  about  the  sacredness  and  the  responsi- 
bilities of  motherhood.  I  wish  we  might  say  more  about  the 
sacredness  and  responsibility  of  the  high  office  of  teacher,  recog- 
nizing the  profession  to  be  the  highest  of  all  professions,  exact- 
ing a  high  standard  in  teachers,  and  then  appreciating  the  full 
dignity  of  their  great  mission,  make  teaching  a  grateful  task. 

I  am  sorry  to  say  the  social  recognition  of  the  teacher,  in 


202  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

America  and  the  remunerative  recognition  are  not  what  they 
should  be  when  we  consider  the  noble  and  imperative  work  to 
be  done.  Statistics  show  that  the  cleverest  members  of  the  pro- 
fession have  little  more  than  enough  for  the  mere  necessities  of 
life.  Without  much  leisure  to  grow  ahead  of  their  students,  with- 
out the  money  to  purchase  higher  advantages,  what  wonder  that 
teachers  become  too  often  and  too  soon  mere  guide  boards  to 
text-books,  until,  first  from  necessity  and  then  from  will,  teach- 
ers under  these  circumstances  consent  to  routine  and  system, 
and  soon  lack  freshness  and  inspiration,  while  education  be- 
comes a  deadened  and  deadening  process,  lacking  all  vitalizing 
power  to  awaken  the  slumbering  character  which  lies  in  every 
human  being! 

The  wonderful  kindergarten,  with  teachers  who  have  been 
trained  to  think  and  originate,  rests  upon  eternal  foundations; 
its  work  is  all  directed  to  the  unfoldment  of  soul  powers;  its 
•objective  and  subjective  teaching  makes  it  a  grand  power  in  the 
opening  years  of  a  child's  life.  If  we  can  have  no  more,  thank 
Heaven  for  this!  But  we  must  have  more!  When  the  child 
leaves  the  kindergarten  for  that  which  is  termed  the  higher 
grades,  at  about  the  age  of  seven,  we  feel  the  loss  of  this  soul- 
developing  method,  and  I  question  if  the  grade  of  teaching  may 
be  called  higher  which  takes  away  reality  and  deals  only  with 
hard  rules  and  signs  instead  of  things.  Signs  everywhere  are 
put  up  between  the  child  and  things.  If  mathematics  is  the 
task,  he  deals  with  figures;  if  music  is  the  study,  he  has  notes 
instead  of  tones,  which  are  the  things;  if  reading  is  the  exercise, 
he  is  >more  concerned  with  the  pronunciation  of  his  words,  as 
h-o-r-s-e,  horse,  than  in  holding  in  mind  the  character  of  the 
animal  itself,  which  makes  you  feel  the  go  of  the  animal.  It  is 
the  activity  of  the  mind  and  heart  which  educates  and  determines 
character.  In  proportion  to  which  the  activity  of  the  mind  is 
vitalized  by  emotional  life  is  the  mind  unfolded  and  developed, 
and  quantity  of  being  is  added  thereby. 

Live  study  and  live  teaching  beget  love  of  study,  and  love 
is  the  fructifying  principle  of  growth;  it  is  the  activity  of  the 
emotions  that  keeps  the  soul  alive. 

I  do  not  believe  an  education  which  excludes  emotion  makes 


CHARACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION.  203 

a  being  of  power,  or,  in  other  words,  increases  the  quantity  of 
being. 

Education  should  be  full  of  feeling.  It  takes  sunlight  to 
draw  out  the  fragrance  of  the  violet  and  the  perfume  of  the  rose. 
The  human  soul  is  no  exception  to  the  rule.  Love  is  the  sun- 
light which  develops  the  powers  of  the  soul. 

We  are  told  that  to  educate  means  to  draw  out,  and  yet  we  go 
on  cramming  in  every  kind  of  study.  Whether  the  student  loves 
the  particular  study  or  not,  we  gag  him  with  nauseas  as  we  would 
with  castor  oil,  telling  him  that  what  he  does  not  like  is  good 
discipline  for  him.  The  result  is  the  emotions  are  strangled, 
duties  become  irksome,  and  the  soul  drops  into  darkness,  thus 
killing  the  process  of  original  development,  while  character  be- 
comes stultified,  automatic,  and  imitative.  I  tell  you  to  be  a 
good  thinker  one  must  be  a  good  feeler  first,  and  education  must 
teach  to  feel  from  cradle  to  grave,  or  the  soul's  power  can  not 
be  awakened;  only  the  memories  can  be  trained. 

I  would  like  to  consider  at  length  the  equal  necessity  of  de- 
veloping the  social  factors,  considering  them  the  objective  and 
subjective  side  of  education.  This  manner  of  training  the  sub- 
jective and  objective  of  the  soul  makes  the  quantity  of  being 
which  Dr.  Emerson  defines  as  character. 

It  makes  men  and  women  who  can  not  fail  of  success  in  life, 
and  success  is  what  we  are  all  looking  for.  Not  mere  money  suc- 
cess, though  even  so  there  is  an  ethics  in  business  which  can 
only  be  reached  through  the  training  of  the  moral  powers  such 
as  I  have  described  in  the  cultivation  of  feeling  first,  thinking 
and  acting  from  feeling  guided  by  both.  Oh,  do  not  choke  back 
the  emotional  life  in  the  child,  mothers,  teachers!  Hold  it  in 
everything;  it  is  the  soul  of  things,  without  which  success  is 
but  a  flashlight  of  a  meteor;  losing  it,  the  consequences  set  forth 
in  the  Scriptural  text,  "  For  he  that  hath,  to  him  shall  be  given; 
and  he  that  hath  not,  from  him  shall  be  taken  away  even  that 
which  he  hath,"  illustrates  the  absence  of  quantity  of  being  and 
the  loss  of  emotional  life. 

We  are  all  familiar  from  our  old  copy  books  with  the  sentence, 
"  Knowledge  is  power."  Following  the  text,  we  have  struggled 
for  the  knowledge  of  the  intellect,  apart  from  the  cultivation  of 


204:  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

the  heart.  Let  us  substitute  for  the  word  "knowledge"  the 
word  "  character,"  and  say,  "  Character  is  power,"  and  we  shall 
have  a  new  goal  and  modify  our  methods.  External  conditions 
and  circumstances  over  which  we  may  have  control  rule  the 
measure  of  our  character,  and  decide  the  "  quantity  of  being  " 
each  individual  may  appropriate  to  himself.  To  do  this,  first 
of  all  we  should  find  out  in  what  direction  lie  the  abilities  of 
each  child.  Its  particular  love  of  special  occupations  will  be  a 
good  index  to  this.  We  are  all  conscious  that  we  have  powers 
within  us  which  we  can  command  easily;  they  seem  to  be  wait- 
ing to  be  called  out.  This  is  the  mission  of  education;  it  is  in- 
troducing human  beings  to  their  native  powers;  it  is  teaching 
them  the  use  of  those  powers  as  tools  with  which  to  build  their 
lives  and  character. 

To  call  forth,  to  draw  out,  then,  the  given  abilities  in  such 
a  way  that  each  individual  may  find  his  or  her  right  place  in  the 
world,  and  become  of  use  to  themselves,  a  comfort  to  others  as 
well  as  to  themselves.  Adding  thus  to  the  harmony  of  the  world 
would  be  the  result  of  such  an  educating  process,  creating  a 
heaven  on  earth,  and  a  condition  which  does  not  leave  the  ques- 
tion debatable  as  to  whether  the  training  of  character  morally 
or  the  training  of  his  intellectual  life  alone  is  of  the  greatest 
value. 

A  man  may  be  smart  with  an  intellectual  education,  but  he 
can  never  be  great  without  soul  culture. 

Well  it  is  for  our  future  prospects  that  such  excellent  strides 
have  been  made  by  the  kindergartens,  the  kitchen  gardens,  the 
manual-training  schools,  and  all  the  industrial  schools  which 
are  at  the  base  of  true  education.  But  the  car  of  progress 
must  run  on  the  double  track  of  theory  and  practice.  After 
teaching  the  soul  to  use  its  own  powers,  to  think  boldly,  clearly, 
grandly,  and  beneficially  for  its  own  Avelfare,  it  must  be  led  to 
think  of  its  value  in  the  divine  economy  of  all  life;  it  must 
think,  work,  and  live  for  the  welfare  of  all  mankind,  or  there 
will  be  no  expansion  of  character.  There  can  be  no  "  quantity 
of  being  "  if  there  is  no  proper  use  of  the  powers  of  the  being — 
no  proper  exercise  of  the  functions  of  the  mind  and  life  in  out- 
ward forms.  Without  it  there  can  be  no  development  of  the 


CHARACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION.  205 

spiritual  being,  any  more  than  there  is  development  of  muscle  in 
the  arm  which  never  moves  itself. 

As  we  claim  that  the  first  step  in  the  development  of  the 
powers  of  life  is  in  educating  the  soul  to  think  and  act  for  itself, 
so  we  claim  that  the  second  step,  to  insure  an  ever-increasing 
influx  of  powers,  is  in  the  use  of  those  powers  for  others  and  for 
human  progress.  Such  exercise  will  bring  bright  thoughts  which 
have  never  been  thought  before;  thoughts  which  will  glitter  as 
new  coin  from  the  treasury  of  heaven;  thoughts  according  to  the 
demands  of  the  age  and  existing  conditions,  by  which  great  mys- 
teries shall  be  illuminated,  and  the  problems  of  science,  govern- 
ment, and  sociology  shall  be  solved. 

When  we  have  an  education  universal,  such  as  is  dawning  in 
centers  where  kindergartens  are  planted,  and  where  we  make 
the  science  of  anthropology  an  element  in  education,  then,  and 
not  until  then,  will  we  have  the  originality  and  the  appreciation 
of  originality  which  come  to  lead  us,  like  the  pillar  of  fire  by 
night,  toward  a  land  of  plenty. 

When  we  have  an  education  which  means  the  development  of 
the  creative  intellect  and  the  moral  obligations  of  life  combined, 
we  shall  know  what  Dr.  Emerson  means  in  defining  character  as 
"  quantity  of  being,"  and  what  Dr.  Buchanan  conveys  in  defining 
"  education  as  the  training  of  body  and  soul  to  act  together  har- 
moniously, obeying  all  of  the  interrelative  laws  of  existence." 

It  is  well  for  our  future  prospects  that  the  greatest  thinkers 
in  Germany,  in  France,  in  England,  and  in  America  are  turning 
their  splendid  powers  toward  the  thought  of  education.  We 
have  heard  a  great  deal  about  the  German  thought,  that  it  is 
the  advance  light  of  a  higher  civilization.  Have  you  ever 
thought  what  it  is?  Have  you  ever  dreamed  what  it  is?  To  be 
sure,  the  Germans  have  made  discoveries  in  science;  they  have 
great  powers  of  observation;  they  arrive  at  splendid  deductions; 
they  give  us  fine  works  on  science;  they  have  a  profound  turn  of 
mind:  Very  well;  all  this  is  very  good,  but  it  is  not  the  real 
German  thought.  The  German  thought  is  the  thought  that  has 
led  men  for  years  toward  principles  for  developing  the  powers 
of  the  human  mind.  It  is  directed  toward  the  birth  of  man. 
Man  is  not  yet  born,  and  the  leading  thought  of  the  day  is  carry- 


206  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ing  the  light  toward  the  new  birth  of  man.  Plato  said,  "  The 
teacher  assists  at  the  birth  of  the  soul ";  and  we  say,  in  the  light 
of  that  thought,  quoting  Browning,  "  Man  is  not  man  as  yet." 
He  is  to  be  born.  He  is  to  be  assisted  in  the  birth  of  his  own 
powers,  of  his  own  activities,  through  educatidn,  at  whose  portals 
only  we  stand,  not  having  yet  crossed  the  threshold. 

The  new  education  will  appeal  to  the  soul  powers  of  the  man 
not  as  a  fractional  man,  but  to  him  as  a  whole  man,  not  merely 
a  physical  being  with  creature  comforts  to  be  supplied  which 
appeal  to  his  will,  but  it  will  appeal  to  him  in  his  higher  wisdom, 
so  that  he  will  be  able  while  on  the  earth  to  look  into  the  heavens, 
and  all  around  him,  comparing  things,  getting  at  their  just 
values  and  relations,  selecting  the  divine  in  all  systems  of  edu- 
cation, judging  everything  by  the  end  toward  which  it  brings 
man.  Does  it  lead  him  away  from  his  lower  desires,  his  meaner 
sensibilities?  Does  it  lead  him  into  higher  purposes?  If  thus 
it  does,  then  it  is  the  right  education.  That  which  does  not  do 
this,  but  only  gives  the  ability  to  do  a  particular  thing,  educates 
only  certain  faculties;  it  does  not  educate  the  whole  man.  Where 
is  he?  Slumbering  in  the  depths! 

The  bee  has  a  certain  faculty  beyond  the  faculty  of  man; 
so  has  the  beaver  in  building  his  dam.  He  has  transmitted  tend- 
encies that  give  him  faculty.  But  has  he  a  great  soul?  There 
are  men  who  think  they  are  getting  an  education  because  they 
develop  faculties  and  make  specialists  of  themselves.  They  build 
dams  and  go  into  them;  I  am  not  talking  about  that  kind  of  an 
education.  I  am  talking  about  that  which  elevates  faculty  into 
an  outgrowth  of  manhood;  that  which  takes  a  farmer  and  makes 
a  poet  of  him,  yet  holds  the  farmer  still.  We  want  no  education 
which  takes  man  away  from  practical  things,  which  takes  a 
farmer's  boy  and  educates  him  so  that  he  can  not  go  back  to 
the  farm.  We  want  an  education  such  as  will  educate  the  powers 
of  the  young  farmer,  the  mechanic,  or  the  artist,  so  that  he  can 
go  back  to  the  farm,  the  shop,  and  the  studio  to  develop  each 
the  better. 

Education  should  turn  to  practical  ends,  but  while  training 
men  to  practical  things  it  should  be  done  with  a  divine  impulse, 
soul  and  body  taking  the  training  for  harmonious  action.  Love 


CHARACTER  BUILDING  IN  EDUCATION.  2QY 

and  wisdom  creating  the  being  whose  force  for  good  shall  make 
the  character  strong.  Then  would  business  become  moral  and 
the  world  better. 

In  closing,  let  me  use  the  eloquence  of  Dr.  Emerson,  to  whom 
I  have  often  referred,  as,  indeed,  having  had  the  felicitous  joy 
of  sitting  at  his  feet  to  listen  to  his  great  teachings,  I  must 
acknowledge  his  inspiration  in  every  word  I  have  given  you.  In 
reading  the  signs  of  the  times,  he  says  there  are  to-day  men  and 
women  divided  into  two  classes — one  class  facing  the  East  and 
the  other  facing  the  West.  Those  who  face  the  West  mistake 
the  evening  star  for  the  morning  star,  and  look  backward  into 
the  darkness  and  the  night;  while  those  who  are  looking  to  the 
East  see,  with  faith  and  hope,  the  morning  star  that  ushers  in 
what  is  to  be. 

We  have  noble  leaders  in  education,  but  they  find  it  slow 
work  to  turn  the  masses  toward  the  morning  star.  There  are 
people  in  all  walks  of  life  who  are  bowing  low  the  knee  to  the 
something  which  is  setting  never  to  rise  again,  turning  their 
backs  on  the  morning  star  which  is  traveling  in  the  way  of 
progress. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  is 
unmindful  of  the  morning  star,  but  may  it  become  a  luminary 
itself  in  education,  so  building  its  own  character  that  its  light 
shall  guide  and  bless,  leading  ever  on  and  upward  in  the  divine 
mission  of  character  building  intrusted  to  mothers  and  teachers. 


208  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN. 

BY  MRS.  SALLIE  S.  GOTTEN, 
Falkland,  N.  C. 

PHILOSOPHY  teaches  that  facts  are  established  by  universal 
testimony,  and  universal  testimony  declares  that  there  never 
has  been  and  never  will  be  anything 

...  on  earth 

That  has  a  feather's  weight  of  worth 
Without  a  woman  in  it. 

As  the  crowning  miracle  of  creation,  as  the  sweetest  mystery 
of  Nature,  as  an  erring  mortal,  and  as  the  chosen  link  between 
divinity  and  humanity,  woman  has  been  the  subject  of  criticism, 
both  kind  and  unkind.  Often  a  fascinating  but  false  glamour 
has  been  thrown  around  her  by  the  enthusiast;  often  undeserved 
sneers  have  been  hurled  at  her  by  the  cynic;  often  her  real  value 
has  been  invisible  to  the  unappreciative,  yet  she  remains  God's 
benediction  upon  accomplished  creation  and  man's  incentive 
to  action.  No  period  of  time,  no  phase  of  life  is  free  from  her 
influence,  and  her  relation  to  all  the  conditions  of  the  present 
era  are  being  seriously  considered,  and  her  opportunities  are 
being  enlarged  to  meet  the  requirements  of  her  rapid  develop- 
ment. 

Her  relation  to  the  Government  is  not  a  new  subject  for  con- 
sideration, but  it  is  one  which  continually  presents  new  aspects. 
Woman's  eligibility  to  the  privileges  of  citizenship  has  many 
champions,  and  in  time  she  will  doubtless  add  the  ballot  to  her 
other  responsibilities;  yet  the  ballot  will  turn  to  ashes  in  her 
grasp  unless  she  realizes  that  the  casting  of  a  vote  is  less  impor- 
tant than  the  training  of  a  voter. 

The  crown  of  womanhood  is  motherhood,  and  the  glory  and 
pride  and  hope  of  a  nation  all  concentrate  in  its  mothers.  Napo- 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        209 

leon  realized  this  when  he  told  Madame  de  Stael,  to  the 
disappointment  of  her  vanity,  that  the  greatest  woman  in 
France  was  she  who  was  the  mother  of  the  largest  number  of 
children. 

Woman's  pre-eminence  and  value  as  an  individual  must  be 
estimated  from  personal  standpoints,  and  must  result  in  a  vari- 
ety of  conclusions,  but  her  greatest  value  to  a  nation  must  ever 
be  in  the  capacity  of  a  mother.  Otherwise  nations  would  cease, 
and  their  glories  fade  by  reason  of  the  decrease  in  population. 
Her  beauty  may  enslave  the  senses,  her  subtle  intuitions  may 
guide  the  minds  of  the  wisest  men,  her  altruism  may  develop 
higher  standards,  yet  if  all  these  gifts  perish  with  her  material 
body,  of  what  permanent  value  has  she  been  to  her  race  or  to 
the  nation?  Nor  does  her  duty  cease  with  the  supply  of  popula- 
tion and  the  perpetuation  of  her  own  gifts.  Even  beyond  this 
duty  it  is  her  most  imperative  and  a  higher  duty  to  make  this 
population  of  the  highest  possible  type.  Thus  it  becomes  evident 
that  the  unceasing  improvement  of  its  women  is  of  vital  im- 
portance to  a  government,  and  should  receive  serious  considera- 
tion. 

Man's  mission  on  earth  is  the  subjection,  domination,  and 
utilization  of  the  forces  of  Nature  for  the  benefit  of  mankind, 
and  governments  are  formed  for  the  more  successful  accomplish- 
ment of  this  mission.  On  the  earth  there  will  never  be  any 
creature  higher  than  man,  but  he  may  become  a  higher  type,  and 
the  needs  of  the  future  will  demand  a  higher  type.  The  earth, 
more  highly  developed  by  man's  energy  and  scientific  research, 
will  need  a  more  perfect  man  to  dominate  it.  Higher  and  more 
complex  conditions  will  require  higher  adaptability  to  meet  those 
conditions,  and  it  is  woman's  mission  to  develop  this  higher 
adaptability  in  man. 

A  noted  scientist  asserts  that  "  the  great  motive  of  organic 
Nature  was  to  produce  human  mothers." 

That  fact  accomplished,  Nature  has  never  made  anything 
since.  The  work  of  perfecting  the  human  race  was  delegated 
to  woman,  the  obligations  of  maternity  were  made  eternal,  and 
her  soul  was  filled  with  insatiate  longings  for  something  higher 
and  better,  so  that  through  these  aspirations  she  should  herself 


210  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

be  led,  and  should  lead  man,  onward  and  upward  toward  their 
joint  heritage  of  immortality. 

In  the  Building  of  Anthropology  at  the  Columbian  Exposi- 
tion Prof.  Putnam  illustrated  the  life  of  primitive  woman  in 
such  a  way  as  to  show  conclusively  that  she  was  the  first  potter, 
tanner,  and  tailor,  and  from  the  necessities  of  her  environment 
the  originator  of  almost  all  the  industrial  arts. 

As  civilization  advanced  she  employed  her  time  in  making 
ornaments  for  the  adornment  of  man,  who  was  at  that  era  the 
ornamental  part  of  creation.  After  she  had  originated  a  way 
to  do  these  things,  man  gallantly  assumed  the  labor,  and  ended 
by  making  her  the  ornamental  part  of  creation.  Both  having 
thus  served  as  ornaments  until  developed  into  higher  utility,  now 
another  advance  becomes  necessary,  and  again  she  must  take 
the  first  step.  Now  she  must  devise  a  way  to  invest  him  with 
the  mental  and  moral  adornments  of  a  nobler  manhood,  thus 
repeating  on  a  higher  plane  the  histor}7  of  primitive  experience. 

These  general  principles  apply  to  all  mankind,  but  our  spe- 
cial solicitude  is  in  regard  to  the  higher  development  of  our  own 
people. 

Herbert  Spencer  says  that  "  Americans  may  reasonably  look 
forward  to  a  time  when  they  will  have  produced  a  civilization 
grander  than  any  the  world  has  ever  known  ";  and  all  the  signifi- 
cant portents  point  to  America  as  the  field  of  the  activities  of  the 
next  century  of  progress,  and  to  the  Anglo-Saxon  as  the  domi- 
nant spirit  of  that  progress.  This  high  destiny  involves  the 
responsibility  of  preparing  for  its  fulfillment. 

Progress  means  higher  conditions,  more  complex  problems 
associated  with  diverse  humanity,  and  to  meet  those  higher 
conditions  and  to  solve  those  more  intricate  problems  will  neces- 
sitate a  higher  caliber  in  man.  Hence  we  may  well  ask,  Is 
American  manhood  in  the  highest  possible  state  of  development? 
Are  we,  as  a  people,  already  endowed  with  adaptability  to  meet 
all  future  development,  or  is  there  a  higher  state  to  which  we 
may  attain  and  which  we  may  stimulate  other  races  to  attain? 

It  is  specially  true  of  Americans  that  they  demand  the  best 
of  everything,  and  shall  they  not  themselves  become  the  highest 
types  of  men  and  women?  Have  we  attained  the  limit  of  phys- 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        211 

ical,  mental,  and  moral  perfection?  The  blind,  the  dumb,  the 
deformed,  the  undersized,  the  uneducated,  the  imbecile,  the 
drunkard,  the  thief,  the  murderer,  the  diseased,  the  sinful,  and 
the  suffering  all  forbid  us  to  harbor  such  a  thought. 

How,  then,  may  a  higher  condition  of  humanity  be  reached? 
How  may  American  men  and  women  be  prepared  for  the  high 
destiny  of  the  future?  These  are  momentous  questions  whose 
perfect  accomplishing  is  yet  afar  off,  but  still  possible,  and,  like 
all  great  achievements,  must  begin  with  an  effort. 

Effects  in  the  natural  world  do  not  come  as  supernatural 
benefactions;  they  come  through  natural  channels,  and  as  the 
results  of  great  and  continued  effort. 

The  necessary  effort  on  this  line  should  be  the  cultivation 
by  women  of  a  scientific  motherhood,  which  shall  in  time  cor- 
rect the  errors  of  the  past  and  redeem  the  future  by  penetrating 
the  mysteries  of  heredity  and  learning  to  control  its  possibilities. 
The  scientist  and  the  learned  physician  know  something  of  these 
hidden  mysteries,  but  their  knowledge  avails  but  little  to  the 
human  race  so  long  as  woman,  the  laboratory  in  which  the  won- 
ders and  errors  of  heredity  are  brought  to  form,  remains  herself 
in  ignorance  of  her  power  to  assist  in  controlling  it.  Woman 
should  know  her  wonderful  self,  and  realize  the  measure  of  her 
responsibility  to  the  future.  By  the  light  of  scientific  knowl- 
edge she  should  climb  the  steeps  to  scientific  motherhood,  for  it 
is  through  her  that  the  Great  Alchemist  will  transmute  the  dross 
of  the  human  animal  called  man  into  the  gold  of  a  nobler  crea- 
ture, made  indeed  "  in  the  image  of  God." 

Scientific  motherhood  means  more  than  a  casual  thought 
can  grasp.  It  means  a  grander,  nobler  race,  an  altruistic  human- 
ity which  shall  fit  the  earth  for  the  Saviour's  advent.  It  means 
the  reformation  of  the  drunkard,  the  redemption  of  the  criminal, 
the  repentance  of  the  murderer,  the  abolition  of  asylums  for  the 
blind,  dumb,  and  insane.  It  means  the  elimination  of  selfish- 
ness, the  death  of  oppression,  the  birth  of  brotherly  love,  the 
uplifting  of  mankind  through  true  spiritual  Christianity,  and 
the  control  of  hereditary  weakness  of  mind  and  of  body  all  by 
prenatal  influences. 

These  blessed  results  will  come  not  to-day,  not  next  week — 


212  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

perhaps  not  in  a  century — but  in  time,  and  the  sooner  the  first 
effort  is  made  toward  them  the  sooner  will  their  full  accom- 
plishment be  reached.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  said  truly  that 
the  time  to  begin  to  train  a  child  is  one  hundred  years  before 
it  is  born,  and  now  is  not  too  soon  to  begin  to  conquer  the  evils 
which  fill  the  earth. 

It  is  claimed  that  education  and  culture  will  accomplish 
much  of  this,  but  we  wait  in  vain  for  the  realization  of  this 
claim.  Has  culture  eradicated  drunkenness  among  the  cultured? 
Alas,  its  thrall  still  darkens  the  brains  of  many  most  cultured 
men!  Has  education  eliminated  dishonesty?  The  educated  and 
cultured  defaulter  from  the  best  social  circles  and  the  common 
thief  by  contrast  prove  that  culture  only  teaches  dishonesty 
better  methods  and  larger  results.  Has  culture  eradicated  heredi- 
tary diseases,  or  remedied  physical  defects,  or  corrected  mental 
weaknesses  which  pass  from  one  generation  to  another?  Does 
culture  overcome  the  love  of  self  and  the  greed  for  gold?  No; 
for  just  as  higher  culture  demands  more  costly  gratifications, 
which  only  gold  can  supply,  so  this  higher  necessity  intensifies 
the  thirst  for  money  which  removes  from  the  fortunate  the 
temptations  which  beset  and  destroy  the  less  cultured. 

Evidences  of  cultured  dishonesty,  of  educated  depravity 
abound,  and  we  are  forced  to  admit  that  culture  can  not  accom- 
plish these  desired  results,  and  we  must  look  elsewhere  for  help. 
We  turn  hopefully  to  woman  as  the  key  to  the  sad  situation,  for 
universal  scientific  motherhood,  though  difficult  of  attainment, 
is  luminous  with  possibilities  for  the  uplifting  of  the  human 
race. 

It  is  then  evident  that  woman's  most  imperative  duty  to  the 
government  under  which  she  lives  is  to  supply  a  population 
composed  of  the  highest  types  of  men  and  women,  and  it  is 
equally  evident  that  scientific  motherhood  is  necessary  to  the 
proper  performance  of  this  duty. 

But  all  duty  is  reciprocal,  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Govern- 
ment, which  seeks  the  welfare  of  its  people,  to  offer  to  its  women 
an  opportunity  for  the  attainment  of  this  scientific  motherhood 
which  will  be  fraught  with  so  much  good. 

The  measure  of  a  nation's  greatness  is  the  elevation  of  its 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        213 

women,  and  any  increase  of  national  greatness  is  dependent  upon 
the  mothers  of  the  nation.  Nowhere  on  earth  does  woman  hold 
a  more  honored  position  than  in  these  United  States,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  that  this  Government  will  lead  the  world  in  offering 
to  its  women  the  opportunity  for  acquiring  the  scientific  train- 
ing necessary  to  the  performance  of  the  high  duties  of  woman's 
sphere. 

It  is  true  that  the  masses  of  our  women  are  not  prepared  to 
master  the  intricacies  and  fulfill  the  requirements  of  a  scientific 
motherhood  at  once.  The  urgent  material  demands  of  the  pres- 
ent are  too  pressing,  and  the  present  will  not  yield  to  the  future. 
But  slow  growth  is  an  unfailing  accompaniment  of  grand  results, 
and  growth  on  this  line,  once  quickened  by  the  sunlight  of  oppor- 
tunity, will  soon  produce  a  harvest  of  results. 

Woman  must  first  be  enabled  to  conquer  the  urgencies  of 
the  material  present,  so  as  to  have  time  to  study  the  higher  mys- 
teries of  womanhood,  and  to  contemplate  herself  as  the  responsi- 
ble medium  of  the  transmission  of  good  and  of  evil.  The  press- 
ing needs  of  the  material  present  may  be  overcome  by  industrial 
knowledge  on  scientific  lines,  which  will  enable  her  to  overcome 
with  ease  the  practical  details  of  life.  This  done,  the  higher 
fields  of  scientific  thought  will  become  inviting  to  her,  and 
should  be  made  attainable. 

Yet  scientific  motherhood  will  gain  no  marked  impetus  while 
restricted  to  a  fortunate  few.  It  must  be  made  a  national  possi- 
bility in  order  to  become  a  national  benefit.  Like  all  our  na- 
tional blessings,  it  should  be  "  by  the  people,  for  the  people," 
and  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Government  to  give  us  an  opportunity 
to  acquire  this  scientific  knowledge. 

It  can  be  done  through  the  establishing  by  the  Government 
of  a  national  training  school  for  women,  where  the  women  of 
the  nation  shall  be  trained  in  the  sciences  of  domesticity  and 
peace,  just  as  at  West  Point  and  Annapolis  the  men  are  trained 
in  the  science  of  war. 

In  this  school  woman  should  be  taught  the  highest  domes- 
tic science  in  all  its  diversities.  She  should  be  taught  applied 
chemistry,  because  the  nutrition  of  the  nation  is  her  charge. 

She  should  be  taught  architecture,  because  she  makes  the  homes, 
15 


214  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

and  should  know  what  architectural  conditions  are  most  con- 
ducive to  health  and  comfort. 

She  should  be  taught  sanitation,  disinfection,  and  the  pre- 
vention and  cure  of  diseases,  because  it  is  to  her  arms  all  the 
nation  returns  in  sickness  and  death,  and  she  should  be  familiar 
with  the  foes  of  health  and  how  to  combat  with  them. 

She  should  be  taught  the  care  of  infants  and  their  foods,  for 
upon  her  knowledge  and  care  the  sons  of  men  are  dependent  for 
strength  in  manhood  to  make  the  nation  great. 

She  should  be  taught  the  application  of  science  to  all  de- 
partments of  household  labor,  with  a  view  to  lightening  that 
labor,  in  order  to  give  more  time  to  scientific  thought  and  study. 

She  should  be  taught  the  mysteries  and  possibilities  of  hered- 
ity, and  impressed  with  her  duty  to  improve  and  develop  her 
race  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  and  for  the  government  which 
provides  such  opportunities  for  woman. 

There  will  be  no  need  to  teach  patriotism  in  such  a  school. 
Patriotism  will  be  spontaneous  when  woman  is  thus  recognized 
by  her  country. 

This  national  training  school  should  receive  its  quota  of 
pupils  from  each  State,  just  as  do  the  other  national  schools, 
and  its  curriculum  should  embrace  a  higher  course  of  study 
than  is  pursued  at  the  industrial  colleges  of  the  various  States. 
These  State  institutions  form  the  first  step  by  which  woman 
may  ascend  to  a  more  perfect  womanhood,  and  this  national 
training  school  will  be  the  second  step  in  that  ascent.  One  will 
develop  her  practically;  the  other  will  develop  her  scientifically. 
The  first  will  give  her  skillful  hands  to  obey  practical  minds,  and 
the  second  will  give  her  deeper  scientific  knowledge  and  teach 
her  how  to  apply  it. 

The  test  of  civilization  is  said  to  be  the  distribution  of  jus- 
tice, and  certainly  justice  demands  that  woman  should  receive 
some  share  in  the  distribution  of  national  benefits."  "  Equal 
benfits  to  all,  special  privileges  to  none  " — we  hear  it  so  often, 
it  has  a  sweet  sound  to  a  free  people;  but  it  becomes  a  hollow 
sound  when  taught  as  a  precept,  and  not  followed  by  consistent 
action. 

Woman  has  not  been  exempt  from  the  duties  exacted  of 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        215 

other  citizens,  yet  she  has  been  overlooked  in  the  distribution  of 
educational  benefits.  She  has  paid  taxes;  she  has  observed  the 
law  (and  incidentally  furnished  the  lawmaker);  she  has  con- 
tributed in  many  ways  to  the  welfare  of  the  nation;  and  she 
should  receive  some  share  of  reciprocal  benefits. 

The  boys  of  the  nation — the  Indian,  the  negro — have  all 
received  educational  opportunities;  the  arts  and  sciences  have 
been  promoted,  but  woman  and  her  natural  colleague,  domestic 
science,  have  been  apparently  forgotten.  The  schools  at  West 
Point  and  Annapolis  for  the  training  of  the  boys  of  the  nation, 
the  schools  for  the  training  of  the  Indian  and  the  negro,  the 
schools  for  the  advancement  of  agriculture  and  mechanic  arts 
are  all  proper  and  useful,  but  are  they  all-sufficient? 

The  necessity  for  proper  training  in  order  to  secure  best  re- 
sults is  recognized  in  every  line  of  endeavor,  and  the  making  of 
homes  and  the  training  of  children  are  not  exceptions.  Is  not 
the  making  of  homes  as  important  as  the  making  of  an  army 
and  navy?  We  may  sometime  need  the  army  and  navy,  but  we 
always  need  the  purest,  best  homes  in  which  to  train  our  citizens. 

Does  not  neglected  domestic  science  ambush  as  dangerous 
enemies  within  as  threaten  the  nation's  life  from  without?  Is 
it  not  as  necessary  to  train  women  to  scientific  warfare  against 
the  foes  of  health,  nutrition,  and  development  as  it  is  to  train 
men  to  scientific  warfare  against  each  other?  Is  it  not  a  doubt- 
ful benefit  to  foster  agriculture,  and  yet  leave  woman  untrained 
to  utilize  increased  production  and  to  minimize  waste? 

The  elevation  of  domestic  science  to  its  proper  place  among 
the  other  sciences  will  do  much  to  dispel  the  poverty,  drudgery, 
and  disease,  which  are  the  results  of  ignorance,  and  which  in  so 
many  homes  rob  woman's  heart  of  happiness  and  life  of  its 
brightness. 

Thrift  will  dispel  poverty,  but  thrift  is  born  of  knowledge 
and  training.  Drudgery  encourages  stupidity,  and  drudgery 
can  be  lightened  only  by  the  application  of  science  to  domestic 
labor,  while  disease  feeds  on  the  ignorance  of  woman,  despite 
the  doctor's  learning. 

The  national  Government  says  to  foreign  contagion,  "  Thus 
far  shalt  thou  come  and  no  farther,"  but  contagion  of  local  and 


216  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

internal  origin  continues  to  destroy  our  population.  The  care 
of  the  public  health  annually  absorbs  large  amounts  of  money 
in  our  cities  without  much  diminution  of  disease,  because,  alas! 
the  homekeeper  is  too  often  ignorant  of  the  origin  and  preven- 
tion of  the  most  ordinary  diseases,  and  ignorance  in  one  home 
can  cause  a  harvest  of  disease  which  will  mock  at  the  physician's 
skill  and  learning. 

Then  would  it  not  be  well  to  recognize  woman  as  the  real 
guardian  of  the  public  health,  and  teach  her  whatever  is  neces- 
sary to  the  proper  and  safe  performance  of  these  duties? 

It  is  true  that  there  are  schools  in  some  of  our  cities  where 
such  things  are  taught,  but  they  do  not  reach  far  enough  nor 
multiply  results  fast  enough.  It  must  be  a  national  opportunity 
to  produce  national  benefits.  To  reach  and  benefit  the  people  it 
must  be  broad  and  extensive,  and  should  be  done  for  the  people 
by  the  Government,  with  the  people's  money.  This  would  assure 
its  permanency  on  a  scale  commensurate  with  the  importance 
•of  the  subject. 

Year  after  year  the  Government  appropriates  money  for  the 
improvement  of  harbors,  rivers,  and  obscure  creeks.  Is  not 
woman's  improvement  as  vital  to  the  nation  as  that  of  any  har- 
bor? If  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge  to  an  obscure 
creek  improves  commerce  and  promotes  the  temporal  welfare  of 
that  section,  will  not  the  application  of  scientific  knowledge  im- 
prove the  obscure  mother,  and  promote  the  eternal  welfare  of 
the  people  of  that  section?  Is  an  obscure  creek  of  more  value 
than  an  obscure  mother? 

Streams  neglected  by  Nature  have  been  stocked  with  fish 
by  the  Government,  while  the  minds  of  its  women  have  remained 
in  the  darkness  of  ignorance.  We  have  experimented  to  bring 
down  rain  from  the  sky  to  make  the  desert  bloom.  Can  not  we 
experiment  to  test  the  effects  of  the  light  of  science  on  the 
mother's  of  our  race? 

We  have  sent  camels  to  Arizona  and  reindeer  to  Alaska  in 

an  effort  to  improve  natural  conditions;  we  have  investigated  the 

diseases  of  swine,  and  recognized  the  necessity  for  a  bureau  of 

bacteriology,  while  the  masses  of  our  people  have  walked  amid 

-unseen  dangers^  and  the  sons  -of  men  have  placed  their  chances 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        217 

of  life  on  "  the  survival  of  the  fittest "  because  love,  even  holy 
mother  love,  is  no  safeguard  against  ignorance  and  hereditary 
disease. 

Then  who  will  say  that  aught  but  good  can  come  of  teach- 
ing woman  to  perform  scientifically  all  the  duties  to  which  her 
instincts  naturally  lead? 

Woman  needs  no  eulogy  to  emphasize  her  importance  to  a 
Government  which  rests  on  the  tripod  of  "  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness/'  for  to  all  of  these  she  is  indispensable. 

As  the  life  giver,  she  is  God's  proxy  on  earth;  liberty  loses  its 
charm,  and  happiness  becomes  a  myth  without  her,  and  while 
given  full  liberty  in  the  "  pursuit  of  happiness,"  yet  she  is  of  ten- 
est  found  by  man's  side,  stimulating  his  energies,  training  his 
children  to  worthy  citizenship,  and  leading  all  to  higher  effort. 

A  government  which  recognizes  the  majesty  of  a  free  people 
should  seriously  consider  all  means  which  tend  to  benefit  that 
people,  either  in  body,  mind,  or  morals,  and  the  cultivation  of 
a  scientific  motherhood  combines  in  one  this  threefold  benefit. 
Hence  this  national  training  school  which  shall  lead  our  women 
on  toward  a  scientific  motherhood  becomes  a  desirable  necessity 
and  a  duty  of  the  Government. 

The  importance  of  environment  to  development  is  acknowl- 
edged, and  as  a  question  of  environment  alone  the  subject  of 
home  making  assumes  an  importance  to  a  nation  which  can  not 
be  overestimated,  and  should  receive  national  aid  and  recogni- 
tion. 

It  is  not  suggested  that  the  Government  make  the  homes. 
It  is  only  proposed  that  it  teach  the  home  makers  how  best  to 
do  it,  and  emphasize  the  importance  of  their  relation  to  pros- 
perity. 

When  the  duties  of  home  life  are  invested  with  the  dignity 
of  Government  recognition,  woman  herself  will  feel  more  im- 
pressed with  their  value.  When  the  grand  meaning  and  hidden 
power  of  her  ordained  sphere  dawn  upon  her  in  their  full  force 
through  scientific  study,  then  she  will  not  sigh  because  Nature 
has  assigned  her  special  duties  which  man  has  deemed  safe  to  be 
trusted  to  her  instincts,  yet  which  in  reality  need  for  their  per- 
formance the  highest  scientific  knowledge.  When  she  realizes 


218  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

that  motherhood  is  the  lever  in  God's  hands  for  the  uplifting  of 
the  earth,  rather  than  the  curse  for  disobedience;  when  she 
takes  into  her  inmost  heart  the  fact  that  Christ,  when  other 
modes  of  incarnation  were  possible,  chose  to  be  born  of  a  woman 
to  teach  the  world  her  value;  when  she  studies  the  development 
of  the  human  race  and  her  own  intimate  relation  thereto,  then 
she  will  respond  to  her  altruistic  instincts,  and  by  adding  science 
to  sentiment  renew  her  efforts  at  lifting  the  burden  of  woe  from 
a  sad  world. 

This  is  not  a 'chimerical  dream.  Scientists  have  had  it  in 
their  thoughts,  and  advanced  thinkers  have  cherished  hope  for 
such  a  thing. 

Now  let  thought  begin  to  assume  shape,  and  let  theory 
through  test  become  reality. 

The  realization  of  these  possibilities  is  for  the  future,  but 
the  present  is  the  gate  to  the  future,  and  we  are  responsible  for 
the  conditions  which  that  future  shall  present  to  posterity. 

Let  us  then  lay  the  foundations  upon  which  that  future  shall 
rest.  Let  the  women  of  these  United  States  seek  from  the  Gov- 
ernment this  educational  recognition  in  the  establishing  of  a 
national  training  school,  where  industrial  knowledge  shall  be 
gained,  which  will  enable  women  to  overcome  shiftlessness  and 
drudgery,  and  lead  to  thrift,  which  is  synonymous  with  pros- 
perity. Then  will  follow  scientific  domesticity  among  the  masses, 
which  will  give  better,  happier  homes,  and  lead  on  toward  that 
universal  scientific  motherhood  which  will  develop  the  race  into 
perfect  standards. 

Woman  is  the  flower  of  the  tree  of  life,  holding  in  her  mys- 
terious life-giving  power  the  fate  of  the  future,  and  the  voice  of 
the  future  is  calling  to  her  now — calling  to  her  to  unfold  that 
fate.  There  are  many  ominous  portents  around  us.  What 
means  this  universal  restlessness  among  women  of  all  classes  and 
countries? 

What  means  this  universal  joining  of  hands  by  women 
through  international  organization?  What  means  this  demand 
by  women  for  wider  fields  of  thought,  for  greater  scope  of 
action  ? 

What  means  this  bursting  of  conventional  bonds,  this  adapta- 


A  NATIONAL  TRAINING  SCHOOL  FOR  WOMEN.        219 

tion  to  the  arbitrary  dictates  of  progress,  even  to  the  annihilation 
of  time-honored  customs? 

What  means  this  reaching  out  by  women  to  help  women? 
What  means  this  effort  toward  physical  development  and  the 
gaining  of  superior  health  and  strength? 

It  is  the  Spirit  of  God  moving  upon  the  deeps  of  woman's 
soul,  arousing  her  from  a  long  lethargy  and  impelling  her  to 
prepare  for  her  high  destiny  as  a  factor  in  the  continued  and 
higher  evolution  of  the  human  race. 

What  grander  offering  can  we  add  to  the  grandeurs  of  the 
twentieth  century  than  an  effort  to  improve  our  race?  What 
richer  bequest  can  we  give  to  posterity  than  this  accomplished 
result?  Every  true  woman  will  feel  her  heart  leap  with  joy  at 
the  thought  of  assisting  in  perfecting  her  race  and  in  conferring 
a  permanent  blessing  on  the  earth. 

In  this  work  American  women  are  called  to  lead,  because 
America  is  destined  to  be  the  scene  of  the  evolutionary  activities 
of  the  near  future,  and  she  must  take  her  place  as  a  factor  in 
that  evolution. 

0  grand  work,  to  lead  the  movement  for  a  higher  humanity! 
and  0  wise  and  proud  Government  which  shall  stir  this  impulse 
into  action,  and  open  wide  the  gate  of  opportunity  for  the  fru- 
ition of  its  possibilities! 

When  the  Government  assures  this  opportunity  to  American 
women — which  it  will  do  if  they  ask  for  it — then  will  this  be- 
come in  truth  our  country,  and  woman  will  teach  her  sons  and 
daughters  to  revere  and  bless  more  gratefully  our  flag,  which 
shall  float  not  only  over  brave  and  free  men,  but  also  over  happy, 
scientific  mothers,  who  will  not  shrink  from  the  duty  of  giving 
to  a  Government  which  recognizes  them  such  men  and  such 
women  as  shall  make  the  nation  greater  and  stronger,  and  who 
shall  produce  in  America  "  a  civilization  grander  than  any  the 
world  has  ever  known." 


220  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


FRIDAY  AFTERNOON,  2:30  O'CLOCK. 

NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE  HOME. 

BY  Miss  ANNA  A.  SCHRYVER, 

Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

IT  is  a  great  mistake  to  think  of  Nature  study  as  a  new  thing. 
The  study  of  Nature  is  as  old  as  man.  Nature  has  ever  found  a 
lover  in  the  poet  and  a  subject  in  the  artist.  She  has  been  the 
medium  of  inspiration  to  the  prophet  and  the  source  of  law  to 
the  truth  seeker.  It  has  ever  been  "  through  Nature  up  to  Na- 
ture's God." 

Our  greatest  teachers  have  always  recognized  the  importance 
of  the  study  of  the  whole  universe.  Even  the  growth  of  a  mus- 
tard seed  was  worthy  the  attention  of  Jesus.  Aristotle  wrote  the 
first  natural  history.  He  was  led  to  believe  in  a  complete  grada- 
tion in  Nature,  a  progressive  development  corresponding  with 
the  progressive  life  of  the  soul.  Comenius  asked,  "  Why  in  place 
of  dead  books  should  we  not  open  the  living  book  of  Nature?" 
Rosseau  gave  us  Emile;  Spencer  stopped  to  write  Education. 

It  is  not  a  thing  which  can  be  isolated.  It  is  simply  man's 
first  steps  toward  finding  out  the  unity  and  relation  in  this  great 
whole  of  which  he  is  a  part.  It  is  the  A  B  C  of  man's  course  in 
living.  Man  is  both  soul  and  body.  He  must  ever  seek  all  the 
manifestations  of  spirit  as  developed  in  himself,  as  expressed  in 
literature,  as  evolved  in  history,  and  as  found  in  Nature.  Sooner 
or  later  he  will  discover  the  source  of  all  truth  and  gain  a  reason 
for  the  faith  which  is  within  him. 

Who  shall  study  Nature?    Everybody. 

What  shall  we  study?    The  whole. 

How  shall  we  study  it?    Reverently. 

Where  shall  we  study?    Everywhere. 

When  shall  we  study?     Now. 


NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE  HOME.  221 

No  eye  can  be  too  sound 

To  observe  a  world  so  vast ; 
No  patience  too  profound 

To  sort  what's  here  amassed. 
How  man  may  here  best  live  no  care  too  great  to  explore. 

"  The  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof  "  are  ours.  Let  us  take 
full  possession. 

Earth's  crammed  with  heaven. 

And  every  common  bush's  afire  with  God ; 

But  only  he  who  sees  takes  off  his  shoes. 

Even  the  plain  road  has  its  lesson.  Now  for  us  the  sun 
shines,  the  wind  blows,  the  rain  falls,  the  birds  sing,  the  crickets 
chirp,  the  brook  murmurs,  the  flowers  bloom,  the  grass  grows, 
the  trees  clap  their  hands,  and  the  children  shout,  "  I'm  glad  I'm 
alive! " 

The  study  of  Nature  has  played  no  mean  part  in  the  grand 
achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century.  Faradays  have  experi- 
mented and  discovered.  Darwins  have  observed  and  reflected. 
Pasteurs  have  patiently  labored  and  conquered.  Tyndalls  have 
lectured.  Kingsleys  preached.  Huxleys  discussed.  Agassizs 
taught.  Our  civilization  is  affected,  our  thought  is  changed. 
Steadily  the  interest  in  Nature  has  grown.  We  have  science  on 
every  hand,  in  every  form.  There  is  no  end  of  science  magazines, 
science  columns  in  our  papers,  science  sermons  from  the  pulpit, 
science  books  of  all  kinds,  technical  and  popular,  some  written 
by  authorities,  some  made  for  money. 

Universities  and  colleges  have  changed  from  seats  of  learning 
to  laboratories  of  investigation,  where  one  comes  face  to  face 
with  truth.  Even  our  high  schools  hold  their  breath  long 
enough  in  their  Latin  race  to  take  fourteen  weeks'  courses  in 
text-book  sciences. 

Back  in  '71  Dr.  Harris  discussed  the  need  of  natural  science 
in  all  schools,  and  outlined  a  course  of  instruction  for  the  first 
eight  grades.  This  science  wave  has  reached  even  the  infant 
workbench  of  to-day — the  kindergarten.  What  are  we  doing 
with  that  dear  little  play-world,  that  child  garden  which  Froebel 
gave  us?  Prof.  Cattell,  in  September  Science,  writes:  "As  a 


222  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

psychologist  interested  in  the  development  of  the  child,  its  senses 
and  movements,  I  wish  to  urge  that  scientific  education  begin 
with  the  kindergarten.  There  are  but  few  things  more  pathetic 
than  the  ignorant  zeal  of  the  average  kindergarten  teacher.  I 
have  recently  examined  a  catalogue  of  materials,  and  find  it  sim- 
ply abominable.  Nearly  everything  seems  especially  devised 
to  injure  the  eyesight  and  the  nervous  system  of  the  child. 

"  The  young  child  should  be  taught  to  concentrate  the  atten- 
tion, to  observe  accurately,  and  to  make  easy  movements  not 
requiring  nice  adjustments.  The  best  thing  he  can  do  is  to  learn 
to  classify  things  by  their  resemblances,  to  watch  plants  grow, 
to  take  care  of  animals,  to  learn  the  geography  of  the  school- 
house,  to  use  tools,  to  weigh  and  measure  on  a  large  scale.  These 
are  the  beginnings  of  science,  and  are  the  best  subjects  for  the 
kindergarten." 

Prof.  Jackson  has  said:  "Nature  study  in  all  its  phases  is 
the  first  necessity  and  inalienable  right  of  the  child.  By  the 
shimmering  light,  through  the  tremulous  air,  and  to  his  inquisi- 
tive touch  Nature  speaks  to  the  child  while  even  his  mother 
strives  vainly  to  be  understood.  Education  begins  with  these 
initial  touches,  and,  as  contact  with  Nature  widens  and  intensi- 
fies, the  senses  quicken,  the  judgment  strengthens,  the  rational 
imagination  grows,  and  the  thoughts  which  come  into  the  mind 
as  it  contemplates  the  mutual  adaptations  of  the  different  parts 
and  their  relations  to  the  whole  are,  in  their  suggestions  of 
infinite  law,  the  loftiest  that  can  possess  the  human  soul. 

"  Natural  science  affords  the  earliest  and  the  only  direct 
means  of  introducing  the  child  to  his  earthly  habitation.  The 
life,  health,  and  happiness  of  the  individual  is  dependent  upon 
the  knowledge  and  upon  the  understanding  that  he  has  of  their 
relations  to  each  other  and  to  himself." 

Mr.  Halleck,  in  his  recent  little  book,  Education  of  the  Cen- 
tral System,  shows  how  important  early  training  is,  and  how 
dependent  the  development  of  the  faculties  of  the  child  is  upon 
his  contact  with  Nature.  The  faculties  must  be  trained  in  child- 
hood, as  the  plastic  stage  or  growing  time  of  the  brain  is  limited 
to  the  first  few  years  of  life. 

I  fear  that  the  Barefoot  Boys  are  nearly  as  rare  as  the  Whit- 


NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE   HOME.  223 

tiers.  Ah!  but  Whittiers  are  born — yes,  but  still  they  must  be 
developed,  not  stunted. 

Where  is  the  environment  of  the  child? 

How  is  interest  continued? 

Who  gives  his  first  lesson? 

The  child,  a  little  helpless  stranger,  is  ushered  into  a  new 
world.  Much  effort  is  put  forth  in  his  behalf.  He  becomes  the 
object  of  affection,  the  one  ever  to  be  considered,  and  in  some 
cases  a  veritable  little  potentate.  Father  goes  forth  with  the 
song: 

Gold !  gold !  ever  more  gold ! 
Bright  red  gold  for  dearie  ! 


and  mother  sings: 


Love  1  love !  nothing  but  love ! 
Mother's  love  for  dearie ! 


After  all  the  great  expenditure  of  time,  effort,  and  affection, 
are  the  results  the  best? 

Should  man  be  grieved  "  to  see  what  man  has  made  of  man?  " 

Do  we  "waste  our  powers  in  getting  and  spending?" 

Is  the  wealth  of  the  rising  generation  in  sound  bodies,  the 
servants  of  sound  minds? 

Have  we  taken  possession  of  our  inheritance — the  earth,  this 
place  not  made  with  hands — or  do  we  live  in  rooms  filled  with 
stuff  and  nonsense? 

Through  contemplation  of  the  whole  imiverse  have  we  felt 
the  insignificance  of  man  and  through  the  discovery  of  law  and 
unity  have  we  confidence  that  everything  is  for  the  best? 

Such  questions  concerning  man,  his  environment,  and  his 
living  arise  at  every  turn.  Thus  the  attention  is  centered  upon 
man  and  the  great  question  of  what  is  his  best  good. 

This  problem  has  its  origin  in  the  greatest  of  institutions — 
the  family — and  its  consideration  is  first  of  all  the  duty  of 
parents. 

The  mother  school  is  the  most  important  training  institu- 
tion of  the  land.  The  home  is  a  little  world;  everything  is 
related.  Everything  is  worthy  of  attention,  each  is  necessary 
to  the  whole.  The  home  typifies  the  greater  world  in  which  the 


224  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

child  must  some  day  live.  It  is  full  of  real,  natural  things.  Even 
the  horse,  cow,  dog,  and  cat  are  friends.  The  backyard  becomes 
a  garden  and  laboratory  as  well  as  a  playground.  There  is  a  pile 
of  sand  for  the  little  ones,  a  heap  of  stones  which  will  soon  have 
one  of  every  kind  in  the  vicinity,  a  row  of  trees  along  the  road, 
a  flower  bed  all  around  the  house.  In  it  we  find  all  our  old 
favorites:  ferns  and  Jack-in-the-pulpits  on  the  north  side,  violets 
on  the  east,  golden-rod  and  weeds  on  the  west,  corn  and  onions, 
peas  and  beans,  and  other  types  on  the  south.  The  nursery  has 
seedlings  in  the  windows,  spiders'  webs  undisturbed  on  the  sash, 
fish,  snails,  and  tadpoles  living  in  a  glass  dish  with  water  weeds, 
and  turtle,  crayfish,  and  mussels  living  in  a  pan  filled  with  sand 
and  water.  In  the  corner  are  shelves  covered  with  minerals, 
rocks,  weeds,  and  seeds.  Large  winter  bouquets  of  twigs,  dried 
plants,  and  stuffed  birds  decorate  the  top. 

Pets  are  entertained,  and  they  say  that  in  the  spring  a  hive 
of  bees  will  be  placed  in  one  of  the  windows  and  an  anthill 
brought  in  and  placed  under  glass.  The  mother  daily  receives 
presents  gathered  from  marsh  and  wood  or>  taken  from  garret 
and  cellar.  Surely  she  needs  courage  to  say,  "  I  don't  know." 

On  the  bookshelves  are  reports  from  Washington  contain- 
ing information  on  weather,  soils,  trees,  insects,  edible  mush- 
rooms, and  almost  everything;  old  readers  rescued  from  the  past 
for  present  use.  There  are  also  many  new  books.  We  recognize 
Jane  NewelPs  helpful  little  volumes,  Willis's  Practical  Flora, 
Needham's  Zoology,  Murche's  Object  Lessons,  Gibson's  Sharp 
Eyes,  Thompson's  Animal  Life,  and  Morley's  Song  of  Life. 
There  are  pictures  everywhere,  even  in  a  scrapbook.  Yes,  we 
need  them  all.  Through  the  poet  or  the  artist  we  may  be  led 
to  his  point  of  view. 

The  work  should  correlate  with  the  appreciative  living  of 
the  day. 

One  moment  now  may  give  us  more 

Than  fifty  years  of  reason, 
Our  minds  shall  drink  at  every  pore 
The  spirit  of  the  season. 

Begin  with  the  sun. 

The  sun  is  the  source  of  light  and  heat. 


NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE  HOME.  ,  225 

The  sun  is  a  worker. 

Heat  and  light  are  his  agents. 

Air,  water,  and  earth  are  his  tools. 

As  one  has  said:  "  Our  fathers,  the  children  of  Nature,  wor- 
shiped the  sun.  N"o  wonder!  To  them,  even  in  their  simple 
ignorance,  it  meant  more  than  the  cubic  miles  of  fire,  more  than 
so  many  tons  of  matter.  They  pictured  it  not  incorrectly  as  the 
great  divine  source  of  their  every  good." 

The  mother  and  her  children  find  the  sun  to  be  the  source 
of  heat  and  light.  They  note  the  change  of  season,  record  the 
weather  daily,  map  out  the  courses  -of  the  winds.  All  these  they 
discover  as  causes  for  changes  in  plant  and  animal  life.  They 
walk  out  together  and  drink  in  the  fresh  air,  feel  the  beauty 
of  the  whole  landscape,  water,  earth,  and  air,  see  the  clouds  and 
sunset,  trace  the  horizon,  picking  out  the  familiar  objects,  notice 
the  harmony  of  color,  and  try  to  express  all. 

It  is  not  enough  to  feel,  to  see,  to  hear;  we  must  make  all  a 
part  of  ourselves  through  expression.  Emerson  says,  "  Man  is 
only  half  himself;  the  other  half  is  his  expression."  Draw, 
model,  tell,  write. 

In  selecting  the  plants  or  animals  for  study,  let  them  be 
common  and  typical  of  important  groups. 

Take  the  child  to  the  type  in  its  habitat  and  note  the  pecul- 
iarities of  the  individual  and  its  environment.  Study  all  this 
in  a  relational  whole.  Collect  wholes  or  the  largest  parts  prac- 
ticable for  future  work  in  the  home.  Take  great  pains  not  to 
injure  the  plants  or  animals.  Always  collect  in  such  a  sparing 
way  that  the  species  will  not  be  exterminated.  Attempt  to  have 
the  best  specimens  live  and  thrive  indoors.  Study  the  type  as 
a  living  being,  whether  it  be  plant  or  animal.  Observe  relation 
to  environment.  Discover  interdependence,  and,  I  need  not  add, 
note  the  practical  use  to  man. 

Observe  growth,  change,  function,  and  trace  each  to  its  cause 
and  associate  with  organ.  Patiently  gain  the  whole  life  history 
as  fully  as  possible.  In  so  far  as  you  master  the  type  you  are 
able  to  interpret  all  other  members  of  the  same  group. 

State  no  facts  until  each  child  has  discovered  all  that  he 
can.  Be  untiring  in  careful  observation,  slow  to  generalize.. 


226  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ready  to  relate  causes  and  effects,  willing  to  recognize  the  limits 
of  human  knowledge,  and  at  last  fit  each  in  its  niche  in  the 
temple  of  the  world. 

When  biological  law  is  discovered,  apply  it  to  all  known 
types,  especially  to  the  highest,  man;  of  all  moral  teaching,  this 
is  the  most  effective.  The  study  of  human  physiology  can  be 
little  more  than  verbal  memory  of  facts  from  unquestioned 
authority  unless  it  be  made  a  part  of  comparative  biology.  The 
fuller  the  appreciation  of  all  life  and  its  necessary  conditions, 
the  more  intelligently  can  we  care  for  the  temple  of  the  soul. 
This  is  the  best  temperance  instruction.  Better  than  drawing 
serpents  in  cups,  relating  stories  of  the  boy  who  became  a  drunk- 
ard, or  adding  stimulant  and  narcotic  paragraphs  at  the  end  of 
every  chapter. 

When  animals  and  plants  can  not  be  procured,  soil,  minerals, 
and  rocks  can  be  carefully  studied.  Prof.  Winchell,  in  that  valu- 
able little  inductive  manual  Geological  Excursions,  says,  "  Such 
lifelong  ignorance  of  geology  is  quite  as  unnecessary  as  deplor- 
able." The  elements  of  the  science  are  not  a  body  of  principles 
difficult  to  master,  nor  encumbered  with  a  greater  number  of 
scientific  terms  than  the  science  of  botany.  The  data  of  geology 
lie  all  about  us,  and  are  the  most  obtrusive  and  noticeable  of  all 
the  objects  which  we  daily  encounter.  Stones  and  rocks  never 
fail  to  awaken  the  curiosity  of  the  boy  or  girl,  and  there  are  few 
children  who  have  not  made  collections  of  stones,  distinguishing 
their  varieties  by  precisely  the  same  characters  as  the  most  expert 
student.  Usually  it  seems  a  dictate  of  educational  philosophy 
to  take  a  hint  from  these  childish  predispositions  and  aptitudes, 
and  shape  the  child's  education  with  some  regard  to  what  he 
seems  peculiarly  fitted  to  study. 

The  ignorance  of  the  mother  may  be  urged  as  an  excuse  for 
the  absence  of  Nature  study.  Is  it  not  the  greatest  argument  for 
it?  President  Jordan  remarks,  "  A  growing  man  incites,  but 
not  even  mold  will  grow  on  a  fossil."  Dr.  Hall  has  said,  "  Those 
who  have  capacities  for  growth  feel  miracles,  and  later  know 
Nature."  Spencer  says:  "  To  pursue  the  true  course  is  simply 
to  guide  the  intellect  to  its  appropriate  food,  and  to  habituate 
the  mind  from  the  beginning  to  that  practice  of  self-help  which 


NATURE  STUDIES  IN  THE  HOME.  227 

it  must  ultimately  follow.  .  .  .  Children  should  be  led  to  make 
their  own  inferences.  They  should  be  told  as  little  as  possible 
and  induced  to  discover  as  much  as  possible."  Of  course,  the 
better  a  general  knows  the  country  the  better  he  can  lead  his 
army.  But  if  he  knows  not  the  country,  still  the  army  must 
be  led. 

Emerson  has  said:  "  The  sun  illuminates  only  the  eye  of  the 
man,  but  shines  into  the  eye  and  the  heart  of  the  child.  The 
lover  of  Nature  is  he  whose  inward  and  outward  senses  are  still 
truly  adjusted  to  each  other,  who  has  retained  the  spirit  of  in- 
fancy even  into  the  era  of  manhood.  His  intercourse  with 
heaven  and  earth  become  part  of  his  daily  food." 

Agassiz  wrote:  "Children  marvel  at  the  phenomena  of  Na- 
ture, while  grown  people  often  think  themselves  too  wise  to 
wonder,  and  yet  they  know  little  more  than  the  children.  But 
the  thoughtful  student  recognizes  the  truth  of  the  child's  feel- 
ing, and  with  his  knowledge  of  Nature  his  wonder  does  but  grow 
more  and  more." 

We  must  "  become  as  little  children." 

Let  all  the  family  begin  by  making  one-of-a-kind  collection. 
In  securing  fossils  be  sure  to  get  enough  of  the  bed  rock  to  tell 
the  whole  story,  mold  as  well  as  cast.  Note  locality  and  posi- 
tion, and  label  the  specimens,  stating  all  you  know.  Some  day 
you  will  need  it.  Try  to  find  the  earth's  crust  exposed  in  your 
section.  Make  excursions  to  all  the  railroad  cuts,  new  cellars, 
and  wells.  Perhaps  your  river  banks  can  give  you  the  key  to 
the  formation.  "  Nature  will  be  reported;  all  things  are  en- 
gaged in  writing  its  history,"  says  Hugh  Miller. 

Select  a  tree  near  by  which  must  be  passed  every  day.  Watch 
it  carefully.  Record  its  changes.  Eead  the  record  on  its  bark. 
It  is  a  living,  growing,  working  being.  It  is  affected  by  its 
surroundings.  It  adapts  itself  and  develops  into  the  best  indi- 
vidual possible.  How  instructive  are  the  chapters  in  its  life 
history,  of  development,  maturity,  reproduction,  decline,  and 
death! 

Study  the  effect  of  running  water  on  the  surface.  Every 
heavy  rain  will  show  you  how  Nature  carries  and  sorts  materials. 
Study  water  in  all  its  forms:  the  steam  and  vapor  from  your 


228  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

teakettle  and  the  pan  of  water  left  standing  in  the  sun;  the  fog, 
cloud,  rain,  and  hail;  the  frost  on  the  window  pane;  hoar  frost 
and  snow;  the  scum  of  ice,  ice  floating  in  the  glass  pitcher,  the 
bottle  of  water  corked  and  left  outdoors  to  freeze,  the  patches  of 
ice  on  the  walks,  and  the  outside  window  sills. 

Every  day  is  full  of  natural  phenomena,  and  we  should  never 
cease  asking,  Why? 

Reading  is  good  in  its  place,  but  it  alone  can  do  little  for  any 
of  us,  and  much  less  for  the  child.  Reading  can  not  make  us 
lovers  and  interpreters  of  Nature  any  more  than  it  can  make 
a  musician  or«an  artist.  What  we  need  is  to  have  Nature  out  of 
doors,  Nature  indoors.  Make  discoveries  for  yourselves,  live 
your  discoveries,  teach  your  discoveries. 

Many  say  that  "  we  have  no  time."  It  is  because  our  stay 
here  is  so  short  and  living  so  important  that  we  must  economize 
time  and  energy  by  selecting  the  most  beneficial  and  eliminating, 
not  only  the  bad,  but  everything  which  is  not  the  best. 

How  many  live  here  and  never  know  what  a  paradise  this 
earth  is! 

Observation  and  reflection  which  result  in  an  attitude  of  in- 
terest and  sympathy  toward  all  phenomena  in  our  environment 
enlarge  the  horizon,  and  cause  the  growth  of  the  individual  in 
the  most  natural  and  best  way. 

Our  concept  of  Nature  should  be  more  than  something  green. 
Nature  study  should  be  more  than  collecting  things  and  finding 
out  with  what  names  some  one  has  laden  them.  Nature  study 
is  the  attempt  to  understand  everything  around  us  in  its  causal 
relations. 

There  comes  to  me  that  picture  of  Watts,  sitting  before  the 
open  fire,  covering  the  nose  of  the  teakettle  while  his  mother 
is  busy  at  the  cupboard  near  by,  and  another  of  Newton  watching 
an  apple  fall  to  the  ground.  One  whose  mind  in  the  first  recep- 
tive years  has  been  filled  with  pleasant  images  and  clear  con- 
cepts of  the  beautiful  and  the  true  in  his  surroundings  lias  a 
storehouse  for  future  use  which  will  serve  him  in  whatever  he 
does  and  wherever  he  goes.  It  will  open  up  to  him  the  literature 
and  art  of  all  time.  Through  thorough  possession  of  the  types 
within  his  reach  he  gains  insight  into  this  mysterious  world  of 


YOUTH  IN  TOUCH  WITH  GREAT  LITERATURE.    229 

relations.  He  need  never  be  alone,  never  idle.  Each  morning 
the  waking  thought  is  one  of  wonder  and  ambition  to  see  and  do. 

Nature  study  helps  to  develop  the  individual,  and  to  give 
such  an  attitude  of  mind  that  he  becomes  an  independent,  appre- 
ciative liver. 

Education  is  more  than  ways  of  doing  things.  It  is  more 
than  making  a  machine  of  one's  self  that  bread  and  butter  may 
not  be  wanting.  It  is  the  formation  of  such  a  habit  of  living 
as  results  in  the  growth  of  the  spirit  toward  perfection.  It 
begins  in  the  cradle,  and  ends — we  know  not  where! 

Mothers  and  teachers,  let  us  live  that  there  be  fewer  "  delv- 
ing, eyeless  moles."  Train  the  child  to  be  a  machine  only  when 
he  must  be.  Develop  a  sound  body,  the  servant  of  a  sound  mind. 
Work  to  create  an  atmosphere  that  shall  lead  to  a  habit  of  joy- 
ous, humble,  reverent  living.  Strive  to  send  children  forth  with 
the  song: 

This  world's  no  blot  for  us, 

Nor  blank — it  means  intensely,  and  means  good. 

To  find  its  meaning  is  my 

Meat  and  drink. 


THE   IMPORTANCE   OF  BRINGING  YOUTH  IN 
TOUCH  WITH  GREAT   LITERATURE. 

BY  HAMILTON  W.  MABIE,* 
New  York  City. 

No  greater  good  fortune  can  befall  a  child  than  to  be  born 
into  a  home  where  the  best  books  are  read,  the  best  music  inter- 
preted, and  the  best  talk  enjoyed,  for  in  these  privileges  the  rich- 
est educational  opportunities  are  supplied.  Many  things  are  said 

*  Owing  to  a  misunderstanding  in  the  final  arrangements  of  the  pro- 
gramme, Mr.  Mabie  was  unable  to  be  present  as  announced.     By  special  re- 
quest, he  has  most  kindly  written  and  presented  to  the  Congress  the  above 
paper,  to  be  printed  with  the  report  of  the  meetings. 
16 


230  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

to  which  he  lacks  the  key;  but  the  atmosphere  of  such  a  home 
envelops  him  in  the  most  receptive  years;  his  imagination  is 
arrested  by  pictures,  sounds,  images,  facts,  which  fall  into  it  like 
seeds  into  a  quick  soil;  his  memory  is  stored  without  conscious 
effort.  It  is  his  greatest  privilege  that  a  life  so  large  and  rich 
receives  him  with  unstinted  hospitality,  and  offers  him  all  he 
can  receive. 

Now  nothing  could  rob  a  child  so  circumstanced  so  griev- 
ously as  to  attempt  to  bring  such  a  home  life  down  to  his  com- 
prehension instead  of  leaving  him  free  to  grow  into  it  and  up 
in  such  a  home  which  the  child  does  not  fully  understand;  there 
is  music  which  is  far  beyond  his  intelligence;  there  are  books 
to  it.  The  boy  who  hears  the  talk  of  cultivated  men  and  women 
at  table  about  current  affairs  and  subjects  of  permanent  inter- 
est has  the  very  finest  of  educational  opportunities;  the  boy  who 
listens  to  talk  which  is  intentionally  brought  down  to  the  level 
of  his  intelligence  is  by  that  act  robbed  of  his  opportunities. 
Parents  make  no  more  serious  mistake  than  taking  the  tone  of 
the  family  life  from  the  children  instead  of  giving  that  life, 
clearly  and  pervasively,  the  tone  of  their  own  ideals,  convictions, 
and  intelligence.  Nature  does  not  present  one  aspect  to  chil- 
dren, another  to  mature  persons,  and  a  third  to  the  aged;  she 
presents  the  same  phenomena  to  all,  and  each  age  takes  that 
which  appeals  to  it,  dimly  discerning,  at  the  same  time,  the 
larger  aspects  which  are  to  disclose  themselves  later  on.  The 
child  loves  Nature  for  certain  obvious  and  beautiful  things 
which  it  readily  finds;  but  Nature  is  all  the  time  enriching  the 
imagination  of  the  child  beyond  its  care  and  consciousness. 
And  the  method  of  Nature  must  be  our  model. 

If  we  could  arrange  Nature  for  children  by  selecting  a  few 
pretty  flowers,  a  few  colored  stones,  a  few  fleecy  clouds,  and  sepa- 
rating them  from  the  sweep  and  majesty  of  the  universe,  we 
should  make  the  same  blunder  which  we  are  constantly  making 
by  excluding  children  from  the  influence  and  power  of  great 
books  and  condemning  them  to  the  companionship  of  books 
written  to  fit  different  stages  of  development,  as  shoes  are  manu- 
factured to  fit  feet  of  different  sizes.  The  attempt  to  create 
reading  matter  for  children,  based  on  their  ability  to  receive 


YOUTH  IN  TOUCH  WITH  GREAT  LITERATURE.    231 

and  understand  at  a  given  age,  shows  lamentable  ignorance  of 
the  child  mind  and  lamentable  ignorance  of  the  stuff  of  which 
great  'books  are  made.  The  mind  is  not,  like  the  feet,  accurately 
measurable  at  a  given  moment;  it  presents,  at  given  moments, 
certain  definite  limits  of  expression,  but  it  never  discloses  its 
capacity  for  reception.  And  it  is  an  open  secret  that  it  can 
receive,  brood  over,  and  find  delight  in  ideas  which  it  only  dimly 
understands;  more  than  this,  such  ideas  are  often  the  most 
nutritious  food  of  the  growing  mind. 

There  are  a  great  many  so-called  children's  books  which  are 
wholesome,  entertaining,  and  educative  in  a  high  degree;  but 
they  possess  these  high  qualities  not  because  they  are  children's 
books,  but  because  they  are  genuine,  veracious,  vital,  and  human; 
because,  in  a  word,  they  disclose  in  their  measure  the  same  quali- 
ties which  make  the  literary  masterpieces  what  they  are.  It  is 
a  peculiarity  of  such  books  that  they  are  quite  as  interesting  to 
mature  as  to  young  readers.  Of  the  great  mass  of  books  written 
specifically  for  children  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  it  is  a  sin 
to  put  them  in  the  hands  of  those  who  have  no  standards  and 
are  dependent  upon  the  judgment  and  taste  of  their  elders;  a 
sin  against  the  child's  intelligence,  growth,  and  character.  Some 
of  these  books  are  innocuous  save  as  wasters  of  time;  many  more 
are  sentimental,  untrue,  and  cheap;  some  are  vulgar. 

The  years  which  are  given  over  to  this  artificially  prepared 
reading  matter — for  it  is  a  profanation  to  call  it  literature — 
are  precisely  the  years  when  the  mind  is  being  most  deeply 
stirred;  when  the  seeds  of  thought  are  dropping  silently  down 
into  the  secret  and  hidden  places  of  the  nature.  They  are  the 
years  which  decide  whether  a  man  shall  be  creative  or  imitative; 
whether  he  shall  be  an  artist  or  an  artisan.  For  such  a  plastic 
and  critical  time  nothing  that  can  inspire,  enrich,  and  liberate 
is  too  good;  indeed,  the  very  highest  use  to  which  the  finest 
results  of  human  living  and  doing  and  thinking  and  speaking 
can  be  put  is  to  feed  the  mind  of  childhood  in  those  memorable 
years  when  the  spirit  is  finding  itself  and  feeling  the  beauty  of 
the  world.  This  is  the  moment  when  the  race  takes  the  child 
by  the  hand,  and,  leaning  over  it  in  the  silence  of  solitary  hours, 
whispers  to  it  those  secrets  of  beauty  and  power  and  knowledge 


232  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

in  the  possession  of  which  the  mastery  of  life  lies.  This  is  the 
time  when  the  boy  who  is  to  write  Kenil  worth  is  learning,  with 
bated  breath,  the  great  stories  and  traditions  of  his  race;  when 
the  boy  who  is  to  write  the  lines  on  Tintern  Abbey  is  feeling  the 
wonder  of  the  world  and  the  mystery  of  fate;  when  the  boy  who 
is  to  write  the  Idylls  of  the  King  is  playing  at  knighthood  with 
his  brothers 'and  sisters  in  the  Lincolnshire  fields,  and  the  brave 
group  of  noble  boys  and  girls  are  weaving  endless  romances  of 
old  adventure  and  chivalry.  This  is  the  time  when,  as  a  rule, 
the  intellectual  fortunes  of  the  child  are  settled  for  all  time. 

In  these  wonderful  years  of  spiritual  exploration  and  dis- 
covery the  child  ought  to  have  access  not  to  cheap  stories,  arti- 
ficially and  mechanically  manufactured  to  keep  it  out  of  mis- 
chief, but  to  the  records  of  the  childhood  of  the  race;  his  true 
companion  is  this  august  but  invisible  playmate.  That  which 
fed  the  race  in  its  childhood  ought  to  feed  each  child  born  into 
its  vast  fellowship.  The  great  storybook  of  mythology,  with  its 
splendid  figures,  its  endless  shifting  of  scene,  its  crowding  inci- 
dent, its  heroism  and  poetry,  ought  to  be  open  to  every  child; 
for  mythology  is  the  child's  view  of  the  world — a  view  which 
deals  with  obvious  things  often,  but  deals  with  them  poetically 
and  with  a  feeling  for  their  less  obvious  relations.  The  dream 
of  the  world  which  those  imaginative  children  who  were  the 
fathers  of  the  race  dreamed  was  full  of  prophetic  glimpses  of 
the  future,  of  deep  and  beautiful  visions,  of  large  and  splendid 
achievement,  and  of  that  wholesome  symbolism  in  which  the 
deeper  meanings  of  Nature  become  plain.  Out  of  this  dim 
period,  when  men  first  felt  the  wonder  of  the  world,  and  felt 
also  the  mysterious  ties  which  bound  them  to  Nature,  issued 
that  great  stream  of  story  which  has  fed  the  art  of  the  world 
for  so  many  centuries,  and  will  feed  it  to  the  end  of  time.  For 
these  stories  were  not  manufactured;  they  grew,  and  in  them  is 
registered  the  early  growth  of  the  race.  They  are  not  idle  tales; 
they  are  deep  and  rich  renderings  of  the  facts  of  life;  they  are 
interpretations  and  explanations  of  life  in  that  language  of  the 
imagination  which  is  as  intelligible  to  children  as  to  their  elders; 
they  are  rich  in  those  elements  of  culture  which  are  the  very 
stuff  of  which  the  deepest  and  widest  education  is  made. 


YOUTH  IN  TOUCH  WITH  GREAT  LITERATURE.   233 

'  Now  this  quality,  which  invests  Ulysses,  Perseus,  Thor,  Sieg- 
fried, Arthur,  and  Parseval  with  such  perennial  interest,  is 
characteristic  of  the  great  books,  into  so  many  of  which  mythol- 
ogy directly  enters.  The  Odyssey  is  not  only  one  of  the  great 
reading  books  of  the  race;  it  is  also  one  of  the  great  text-books. 
Shakespeare  is  not  only  a  great  story-teller;  he  is  also  an  edu- 
cator whose  like  has  been  seen  only  two  or  three  times  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  Teach  a  child  facts  without  the  illumina- 
tion of  the  imagination,  and  you  fill  the  memory;  give  these 
facts  dramatic  sequence  and  impart  to  them  that  symbolic  qual- 
ity which  all  the  arts  share,  and  you  stir  the  depths  of  a  child's 
nature.  The  boys  whose  sole  text-books  were  the  Iliad  and  the 
Odyssey,  and  who  learned,  therefore,  all  their  history  and  sci- 
ence in  terms  of  the  imagination,  became  the  most  original, 
creative,  and  variously  gifted  men  who  have  yet  appeared  in 
history;  they  were  drilled  and  disciplined,  but  they  were  also 
liberated  and  inspired.  A  modern  writer  has  happily  described 
Plutarch's  Lives  as  "  the  pasture  of  great  souls  ";  the  place,  that 
is,  where  such  souls  are  nourished  and  fed.  Now  the  great  poets, 
novelists,  historians,  supply  the  food  which  develops  a  strong, 
clear,  original  life  of  the  mind;  which  makes  the  imagination 
active  and  creative;  which  feeds  the  young  spirit  with  the  deeds 
and  images  of  heroes;  which  sets  the  real  in  true  relations  to 
the  ideal. 

These  writers  are  quite  as  much  at  home  with  the  young  as 
with  the  mature.  Shakespeare  is  quite  as  interesting  to  a  healthy 
boy  as  any  story-writer  who  strives  to  feed  his  appetite  for  action 
and  adventure;  and  Shakespeare  is  a  great  poet  besides.  He 
entertains  his  young  guest  quite  as  acceptably  as  a  hired  come- 
dian, and  he  makes  a  man  of  him  as  well.  There  is  no  need 
of  making  concessions  to  what  is  often  mistakenly  supposed  to 
be  the  taste  of  children  by  giving  them  inferior  things;  let  them 
grow  up  in  the  presence  of  superior  things,  and  they  will  take 
to  them  as  easily  as  they  will  take  to  cheaper  things.  Accustom 
a  child  to  good  painting,  and  he  will  never  be  attracted  by  in- 
ferior pictures;  accustom  him  to  good  music,  and  the  popular  , 
jingle  will  disgust  him;  bring  him  up  with  Homer,  Shakespeare, 
Plutarch,  Herodotus,  Scott,  Hawthorne,  Irving,  and  it  will  be 


234  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

unnecessary  to  warn  him  against  the  books  which  are  piled  up 
at  the  news  stands  and  sold  in  railway  trains.  The  boy  who 
grows  up  in  this  society  will  rarely  make  friends  with  the  vulgar 
and  the  unclean;  he  will  love  health,  honor,  truth,  intelligence, 
and  manliness.  For  reading  is  not  only  a  matter  of  taste  and 
intelligence;  it  is  a  matter  of  character  as  well. 


STORIES  AND  STORY-TELLING. 

BY  DR.  WALTER  L.  HERVEY, 

New  York  City. 

MY  theme  is  one  which  naturally  appeals  to  all  lovers  cf  chil- 
dren, or  perhaps  I  should  say  to  all  whom  children  love.  It  is 
one  which  must  appeal  to  all  who  would  win  the  love  of  child- 
hood, for  a  story  is  a  key  to  the  door  of  the  heart  of  every  child. 
And  it  is  my  object,  in  a  simple  and  homely  way,  to  answer  the 
question,  "  What  is  a  story?  "  In  answering  this  we  may  find 
that  we  have  learned  why  it  should  be  told,  and  why,  when  told, 
wield  such  power,  and  how  one  can  acquire  the  difficult  art  of 
telling  a  story,  and  whence  derive  material  for  stories  to  tell. 
And  if  there  is  one  mother  present  who  does  not  tell  stories  to 
her  children,  or  one  whose  children  do  not  burden  her  with 
requisitions  for  more  stories  than  she  does  tell,  to  her  in  par- 
ticular I  speak. 

Let  me  say  before  I  go  further  that  when  I  say  "  mother  "  I 
mean  both  parents,  without  distinction  of  sex.  Every  man  ought 
to  mother  his  children  once  in  awhile.  There  is  altogether  too 
much  maternal  monopoly.  It  is  bad  enough  that  the  mother  is 
allowed  by  a  wise  Providence  to  do  so  many  things  for  the  chil- 
dren that  the  father  can  not  possibly  do.  The  list  should  not 
be  increased  beyond  need.  The  so-called  head  of  the  house,  who 
too  often  is  only  a  figurehead,  should  be  allowed  not  only  to  put 
the  children  to  bed  at  least  once  a  week,  but  to  get  even  with 
the  mother  in  the  matter  of  exclusive  privileges  by  doing  some 


STOEIES  AND  STORY-TELLING.  235 

things  for  the  child  that  the  mother  is  not  allowed  to  do  at  all — 
to  have  and  to  tell  some  stories  on  which  he  alone  has  the  copy- 
right. The  man  has  handicap  enough  by  reason  of  his  nature. 
I  am  here  to  stand  up  for  the  rights  of  man,  and  in  particular 
for  his  right  to  tell  his  children  stories. 

The  earliest  occupation  of  parents  and  teachers  is  to  pro- 
vide for  their  children  suitable  food.  Nurture  is  the  prime  need, 
and  that  not  merely  of  body  but  of  spirit.  Of  this  nurture  of 
spirit  there  are  three  kinds.  The  first  is  found  in  the  experiences 
of  the  child  himself,  his  personal  touch  with  the  world  of  persons 
and  things  as  it  presents  itself  directly  to  his  senses  and  his  im- 
agination— the  world  of  his  own  little  life.  This  is  the  core  of 
reality  for  him  and  the  ultimate  point  to  which  all  else  is  re- 
ferred, by  which  all  else  is  interpreted,  and  without  which  all 
else  is  empty.  But  this  is  essentially  narrow.  A  child  shut  up 
in  the  round  of  his  own  personal  experience  is  pitiable.  Nature 
helps  him  out  somewhat  by  keeping  alive  the  memories  of  the 
past,  so  that  the  child  may  look  at  himself  as  upon  something 
external  to  himself,  and  so  grow.  But  even  this  is  too  narrow 
a  diet  for  the  soul.  There  must  be  something  more  than  self 
or  there  will  not  even  be  that. 

The  second  source  of  nutriment  is  the  example  and  parallel 
afforded  to  the  child  by  the  lives  of  those  who  touch  his  own. 
Into  these  he  projects  himself,  putting  himself  in  their  place 
with  broadening  sympathy  and  deepening  insight,  to  the  nour- 
ishment of  his  spirit.  But  this,  too,  is  narrow  and  narrowing, 
for  the  child  has  to  deal  with  such  folk  as  you  and  me,  and  we, 
alas!  in  our  realization  fall  so  far  short  of  his  potentiality,  and 
in  our  imperfection  and  pettiness  of  individuality  fall  so  far 
below  the  standard  of  his  type,  that  sometimes  it  would  be  better 
for  him  (to  use  a  homely  phrase)  to  have  our  room  than  our 
company.  A  complete  dietary  demands  something  more  and 
something  wider  and  freer  and  more  ideal  than  personal  experi- 
ences or  examples.  This  is  found  in  the  world  of  things  and 
relations  not  present  to  sense,  the  world  that  lies  far  beyond  the 
possibility  of  present  personal  experience;  the  world,  it  may  be, 
of  childhood  in  distant  lands,  of  days  and  festivals  different 
from  known  customs;  the  world  of  fancy  and  folklore,  myths 


236  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

and  fables,  peopled  with  fairies  and  giants  and  heroes,  and  the 
mighty  powers  of  good  and  of  evil. 

Danger  there  may  be  that  this  world  of  the  imagination 
shall  crowd  out  the  world  of  hard  reality.  But  danger  there 
certainly  is  that  the  Gradgrind  world  will  have  more  than  its 
proper  share.  The  "  God  of  Things  as  They  Are  "  will  have  his 
innings  soon  enough  and  long  enough.  Childhood  is  the  time 
for  pure  service  of  the  God  of  things  as  they  might,  could,  would, 
or  should  be. 

The  story,  then,  is  the  child's  food.  Without  it  he  will 
become  rickety  and  anaemic. 

The  language  of  the  story  is  the  current  coin  of  the  child's 
world.  The  people  of  the  story  are  the  inhabitants  of  the  child's 
world.  The  people  in  the  present  world  the  child  often  can  not 
understand.  How  many  times  the  child  gives  up  his  father  as 
a  hopeless  case!  He  doesn't  understand  his  talk,  he  can  not 
be  interested  in  his  life, .  his  goings  and  comings  are  without 
reason,  even  if  they  have  a  certain  rhythm,  and  his  very  attempts 
at  play  are  often  bungling  and  beside  the  mark.  But  in  the 
child's  world  everything  is  something,  and  everything  is  doing 
something  worth  while,  and  everything  is  interesting  to  the  child 
because  it  speaks  his  own  language.  It  behooves  us  to  learn  this 
language.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  knew  it  by  heart.  His  Child's 
Garden  of  Verses  is  for  the  most  part  written  in  it  (and  a  sweeter 
and  lovlier  garden  never  grew!),  and  his  example  should  en- 
courage us. 

But  the  story  is  also  a  picture  of  life  at  large.  It  may  be 
an  elaborate  canvas,  it  may  be  a  thumbnail  sketch,  or  a  cartoon, 
but  it  is  always  a  picture.  It  has  form,  color,  concreteness;  it 
appeals  to  the  imagination,  and  through  the  imagination  to  the 
power  to  imitate,  to  dramatize,  and  to  take  up  into  life.  And 
it  is  life  that  forms  the  theme  of  every  story.  It  may  be  the 
life  of  the  child  himself,  what  he  was  and  what  he  did  when  he 
was  very  little.  A  child  of  twenty  months  has  gone  on  record 
as  being  pleased  with  such  reminiscence,  and  it  has  been  re- 
marked that  many  adults  never  outgrow  this  elementary  stage 
of  wanting  to  hear  stories  of  their  own  doings. 

But  to  rest  at  this  point  is  narrowing  and  selfish.    The  child 


STOEIES  AND  STORY-TELLING.  237 

must  get  out  of  himself  and  away  from  himself.  He  must  look 
at  life,  the  life  of  the  world,  the  life  of  the  world  as  shown  in 
stories,  until  he  penetrates  the  disguise  of  everything  strange 
and  foreign,  and  through  the  mask  recognizes  himself. 

The  whole  world  of  stories  lies  open  to  us.  What  shall  be  the 
principle  of  choice? 

The  answer  is  simple  and  sure.  Every  story  should  have 
educative  (I  do  not  mean  instructive)  value,  for  life  is  too  short 
to  tell  stories  that  do  not  make  for  the  evolution  of  spirit  and 
the  building  of  character.  Hence  every  story  must  contain  the 
universal  and  the  ideal;  the  universal,  or  the  child  will  not  see 
in  the  picture  his  larger  self;  the  ideal,  or  the  child  will  not 
see  in  the  picture  his  better  self.  Not  that  the  story  may  not 
contain  the  bad.  But  let  tlie  bad  be  shown  so  plainly  that  it 
appears  as  bad.  Do  this,  and  you  have  presented  the  ideal.  The 
crime  of  our  day  against  childhood  is  rather  the  placing  before 
it  of  the  local,  the  petty,  the  commonplace,  and  the  distorted. 
There  are  publishers  who  each  year  place  before  an  undiscrimi- 
nating  public  attractive  books  for  children,  in  which  charming 
pictures  are  unequally  yoked  with  inane  reading  matter.  Both 
publishers  and  public  should  know  better.  Fine  feathers  ought  to 
mean  fine  birds.  Either  the  feathers  ought  to  be  worse  or  the 
birds  better.  I  have  not  said  that  these  stories  are  immoral. 
They  are  not.  They  are  pure,  and  often  they  treat  of  country 
scenes.  But  they  present  no  "  view  of  life,"  and  are  told  in 
language  which  has  no  literary  merit,  and  which  is  often  dis- 
tinctly bad.  Where  there  is  so  much  that  is  universal  and  ideal, 
there  is  no  excuse  for  that  which  lacks  both.  And  this  is  true 
both  of  the  made-up  stories  in  books  and  the  made-up  stories  we 
make  up  ourselves  out  of  whole  cloth,  or  rather  out  of  no  cloth 
at  all. 

For  this  reason  an  old  story  is  likely  to  be  a  better  story 
than  a  new  story,  a  folk  story  or  a  world  story  than  one  written 
about  an  individual;  and  for  young  children  an  animal  or  a 
plant  story  better  than  a  human  story,  unless  the  human  relations 
be  very  simple  and  true. 

The  tale  of  Ulysses  will  charm  a  boy  of  four,  when  General 
Grant  would  only  confuse  him.  Himself  he  can  put  into  the 


238  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

place  of  Ulysses  or  of  Telemachus,  his  mother  he  sees  in  Penel- 
ope, and  in  Eurycleia  his  own  nurse.  There  is  nothing  that 
interferes  with  the  boy's  projecting  himself  forward  and  being 
a  man  like  Ulysses,  for  in  many  ways  Ulysses  after  all  was  only 
a  boy  like  him.  Let  it  be  the  story  of  the  raft,  for  example,  that 
is  being  told.  The  child  will  hang  on  the  lips  of  his  mother  till 
she  is  done,  and  will  reward  both  the  author  and  raconteur  not 
only  by  saying  with  fervor,  "  I  tell  you,  that  is  a  good  story,"  but 
by  making  Ulysses  over  into  himself.  The  story  of  Jacob  and 
Esau  told  about  imaginary  boys  would  lose  the  exquisite  flavor 
of  reality;  if  told  about  real  boys  of  one's  acquaintance,  might 
cause  embarrassing  complications.  In  stories  of  animals  and 
plants  we  have  the  basal  ideas  of  food  and  clothing,  of  the  sim- 
ple relatedness  of  all  things;  we  have  the  elemental  passions, 
and  the  epic  of  growth,  reproduction,  and  decay.  And  in  these 
the  child  can  find,  and  does  sooner  or  later  find,  the  picture 
of  his  own  being  and  becoming.  There  is  no  child  whose  knowl- 
edge of  himself  is  not  enriched  and  quickened  by  hearing  the 
story  of  the  Discontented  Pine  Tree,  or  the  Constant  Tin  Sol- 
dier, or  the  Ugly  Duckling.  While  in  the  stories  of  the  Heav- 
enly Father  as  the  source  and  creator  of  us  all  the  child  finds 
the  answer  to  the  questions  that  first  arise  in  his  mind  when 
he  looks  at  the  world.  "  Where  do  these  things  come  from  ?  " 
"What  was  before  anything  was?"  "If  God  made  everything, 
who  made  God?"  "Is  there  a  last  'count,'  and  if  so,  what  is 
it?"  "What  will  be  here  after  everything  has  gone?  And 
where  shall  I  be  then?  "  I  know  a  child  of  four  who  demanded 
the  story  of  creation  for  many  successive  days.  He  would  hold 
up  the  wash  cloth  with  the  ejaculation,  "  Now  I  will  make  the 
moon."  He  would  say,  as  one  raised  the  curtain  or  turned  on 
the  gas,  "  Let  there  be  light,"  and  he  himself  set  forth  the  rea- 
son why  it  was  necessary  for  God  to  make  light  first  of  all,  in 
order  that  he  might  see  to  make  everything  else.  And  this  was 
not  irreverence.  It  was  simply  the  natural  impulse  to  put  him- 
self in  the  place  of  every  actor  in  the  story  world,  and  thus  to 
widen  his  sympathies  and  himself,  and  to  participate  even  with 
the  Creator  in  creative  activity. 

But  let  no  one  suppose  from  this  that  we  may  attempt  to 


STORIES  AND  STORY-TELLING.  239 

give  a  complete  account  of  what  stories  do  for  the  spirit  of  the 
child.  As  well  might  you  try  to  describe  in  set  terms  the.  effect 
of  the  Maine  woods  upon  your  spirit  or  compute  by  psychological 
measurements  "  the  surge  and  thunder  of  the  Odyssey."  What's 
done  we  partly  may  compute;  the  rest  we  must  take  on  faith. 
There  is  a  type  of  story  sometimes  called  the  medicine  story, 
where  a  specific  fault  is  sought  to  be  uprooted  by  a  specific  story. 
A  discontented  child  is  told  the  story  of  the  little  pine  tree  that 
wished  it  had  leaves,  and  came  to  grief  through  the  granting 
of  successive  wishes  until  it  begged  for  its  own  dear  needles  again. 
A  disobedient  child  is  shown  his  own  character  as  in  a  mirror 
through  the  story  of  the  lamb  that  went  disobediently  forth  from 
its  mother  and  found  that  everything  had  to  obey,  and  obeying 
was  better  after  all.  The  child  who  is  afraid  of  physical  pain 
will  be  braced  up  by  the  heroic  example  of  the  brave  baby,  and 
the  child  who  says  "  I  can't "  and  lacks  self-control  will  appre- 
ciate the  psychological  story  of  the  fairy  whose  name  is  "  I  am 
that  which  wills,"  and  whose  abode  is  in  the  heart  and  mind 
of  every  little  child  who  is  willing  to  receive  her  and  be  helped 
by  her.  No  one  who  has  tried  such  stories  can  doubt  their 
efficacy,  and  the  ability  to  tell  them  pertinently  and  yet  with 
delicacy  and  tact  is  an  accomplishment  well  worth  our  emu- 
lation. 

But  if  there  are  specifics  and  medicine  stories,  there  are  also 
stories  that  build  up  the  general  health  and  act  rather  as  food 
than  as  physic.  And  these  we  should  not  bring  too  strictly  to 
the  bar  of  definite  moral  evaluation.  If  they  breathe  the  spirit 
of  freedom,  of  sympathy,  of  helpfulness,  if  they  are  beautiful 
and  clothed  in  literary  form,  it  matters  not  so  much  whether 
we  can  see  what  they  are  good  for  or  not.  Their  effect  may  be 
more  subtile  than  our  organs  of  appreciation  or  analysis  are  able 
to  detect.  If  the  child  is  interested  in  them  and  clings  to  them, 
this  is  a  good  though  not  infallible  sign.  Only  time  and  experi- 
ence scientifically  interpreted  can  decide  some  of  these  questions. 
But  my  plea  is  for  a  spirit  of  breadth  rather  than  the  narrowness 
to  which  we  are  often  prone. 

Finally,  a  good  story  is  a  work  of  art.  Therefore  seek  origi- 
nals rather  than  adaptations  at  secondhand.  The  latter  are 


240  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

suggestive  and  helpful,  but  often  lack  reality  and  tang.  The 
best  adaptations  for  you  are,  or  ought  to  be,  those  you  make 
yourself.  To  know  a  good  story  is  to  have  literary  taste;  to  tell 
a  good  story  is  to  be  master  of  a  noble  art.  The  mother  or  the 
kindergartner  who  holds  a  group  of  babies  for  a  quarter  of  an 
hour  with  the  story  of  Siegfried  in  petto  is  as  truly  an  artist  as 
the  one  who  casts  the  spell  of  the  real  Siegfried  over  children 
of  larger  growth.  How  may  this  art  be  acquired?  First,  I 
think,  by  living  in  the  world  of  stories,  reading  them  again  and 
again,  becoming  filled  with  their  swing  and  their  rhythm  and 
their  spirit.  This  spirit,  swing,  rhythm  will  first  work  in  the 
spinal  cord,  afterward  in  the  cerebrum,  and  then  in  the  latter 
stage  it  will  be  time  enough  to  think  analytically  about  tech- 
nique. The  unconscious  story-teller  is  surest  at  the  start,  but 
later  is  unsafe,  because  undiscriminating  and  uncritical.  The 
order  is  vital.  The  story-teller  is  first  unconscious  because  nai've. 
This  is  the  spinal  cord  stage.  Then  he  becomes  critical,  appre- 
ciative, and  embarrassed.  This  is  the  stage  of  cerebral  interfer- 
ence and  inhibition.  Finally,  he  becomes  unself-conscious  again 
through  habit  and  mastery;  cerebrum  and  ganglia,  as  master 
and  servants,  are  at  peace.  The  first  stage  soon  merges  into  the 
second.  It  is  not  long  before  the  thoughtful  student  of  the 
story-teller's  art  feels,  and  then  sees,  that  the  rhythm  which  at 
first  was  felt  may  be  consciously  reproduced;  that  the  static  of 
description  must  be  used  less,  the  dynamic  of  action  more;  that 
there  is  a  vital  difference  between  trying  to  arouse  a  feeling  by 
use  of  the  language  of  the  emotions  and  enabling  one's  hearers 
to:  manufacture  the  feeling  for  themselves  by  providing  the 
ground  and  substance  of  feeling;  and,  finally,  that  a  story  is  a 
little  drama,  that  it  has  a  setting,  a  background,  an  introduc- 
tion, without  which  the  tale  is  bare  and  lacks  atmosphere;  and 
that  in  every  story  there  is  unity,  proportion,  and  harmony,  which 
must  be  secured  by  a  suppression  of  irrelevant  details  and  by  wise 
self-restraint. 

If  a  story  is  a  picture,  it  must  be  seen;  if  it  is  a  picture  of 
life,  it  may  be  lived.  Seen  and  felt  it  must  be  by  us  first  of  all, 
for  if  it  has  become  so  much  a  part  of  ourselves  that  we  see  it, 
there  need  be  no  thought  about  tone  and  gesture  and  inflections 


THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.        241 

in  the  telling,  and  no  fear  that  the  picture  will  not  live  in  the 
imagination  of  those  to  whom  it  is  told. 

Let  no  one  be  discouraged.  The  child's  taste  meets  us  at 
the  point  of  our  need.  The  young  story-teller  needs  practice; 
the  child  demands  the  same  story  again  and  again.  The  neo- 
phyte in  story-telling  is  unable  to  carry  a  long  thread  without 
losing  it,  and  the  infant  is  equally  limited.  One  of  the  most 
successful  and  dramatic  stories  I  ever  heard  of  was  told  recently 
in  our  kindergarten  by  one  of  the  children.  It  consisted  of 
twenty-three  words.  Here  it  is:  "I  went  away  from  home  to  my 
auntie's.  When  I  came  back,  what  do  you  think  I  found?  A 
dear  little  baby  brother."  That  was  all,  but  it  was  enough.  It 
held  the  audience  spellbound.  And  who  of  us  can  not  begin  so? 

I  close,  therefore,  as  I  begin  (which,  by  the  way,  is  often  a 
good  way  in  story-telling),  with  the  hope  that  this  half-hour's 
talk  may  be  the  means  of  giving  to  some  little  folk  represented 
here  a  richer  childhood,  and  to  some  parent,  father  or  mother, 
a  practical  hint  as  to  how  we  "  may  live  with  our  children." 


FRIDAY  EVEN  ING,  8  O'CLOCK. 

THE  AET  OF  EEAEING  CHILDEEK. 

BY  PROF.  ELMER  GATES, 
Chevy  Chase,  Md. 

LADIES  AND  GENTLEMEN:  It  gives  me  the  very  greatest 
pleasure  to  address  so  many  of  the  mothers  of  America.  I  hope 
that  some  years  later  I  may  address  a  national  congress  of  both 
mothers  and  fathers — an  international  or  world's  congress  of 
parents.  I  am  very  glad  that  it  is  to  the  credit  of  Washington 
that  the  first  Congress  of  Mothers  has  assembled  in  our  city,  and 
I  feel  especially  indebted  to  the  noble  women  who  have  this 
enterprise  in  charge. 

I  wish  that  I  might  have  time  to  more  fully  explain  the  ex- 


242  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

perimerital  researches  upon  which  I  shall  base  the  conclusions 
of  this  address;  I  feel  it  a  serious  matter  to  attempt  to  speak 
to  you,  and  through  you  to  other  mothers,  on  this  subject  of  such 
vital  importance — that  of  the  begetting  and  rearing  of  children. 

I  will  at  once  commence  at  the  beginning  of  my  subject  by 
explaining  a  few  of  those  experiments  which  led  to  the  conclu- 
sions I  am  about  to  present  to  you.  I  wish,  in  the  first  place, 
to  assert  distinctly  that  my  experiments  have  been  so  far  almost 
entirely  private,  and,  when  once  published  and  fully  explained, 
will  have  to  be  confirmed  by  other  experimenters,  and  then  cor- 
related and  co-ordinated  with  the  entire  body  of  the  sciences. 
And  when  that  has  once  been  done  I  believe  that  we  may  ex- 
pect to  have  something  like  an  art  of  rearing  children — a  science 
of  eugenics!  What  I  have  to  say  upon  this  subject  I  believe  will 
be  fully, corroborated  in  the  near  future  by  other  investigators, 
and  the  mothers  of  the  civilized  world  will  then  be  in  possession 
of  the  data  that  will  enable  them  to  scientifically  regulate  the 
most  sacred  of  all  human  functions  by  the  light  of  biological 
and  psychological  science.  All  hail  to  that  time! 

When  I  speak  of  heredity,  I  mean  simply  the  well-known 
fact  that  living  organisms  in  reproducing  their  kind  beget  their 
like,  the  progeny,  however,  always  varying  slightly  in  almost 
every  anatomical  and  psychological  particular  from  their  par- 
ents. But  heredity  does  not  mean  the  transmission  of  charac- 
teristics— anatomical  or  mental — which  may  have  been  acquired 
by  the  parents  during  their  lifetime  and,  of  course,  subsequent 
to  their  own  birth.  It  has  even  been  strenuously  denied  that  it 
is  possible  to  acquire  any  character  which  we  have  not  inherited. 
Eminent  biologists  have  recently  denied  that  we  can  transmit 
to  our  offspring  those  qualities  or  traits  of  mind  and  body  which 
we  have  acquired  during  our  lifetime — that  no  evidence  has  been 
adduced  that  a  father  or  mother  can  transmit  to  their  children 
characteristics  which  they  (the  parents)  did  not  inherit.  There 
is  thus  a  difference  between  hereditary  transmission  and  the 
transmission  of  acquired  characters.  It  has  been  stated  that 
though  for  ages  the  Chinese  women  have  had  their  feet  arti- 
ficially deformed,  they  have  not  been  known  to  transmit  these 
defects  to  their  children;  that  circumcision  has  not,  though 


THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.  243 

practiced  for  generations,  transmitted  any  defect;  and  that  when 
the  tails  of  mice  are  cut  off  for  a  number  of  successive  genera- 
tions the  progeny  still  inherit  normal  tails,  there  being  no  defi- 
nite tendency  to  transmit  mutilations.  You  will  see  later  on  in 
my  remarks  that  these  experiments  are  inconclusive,  because 
mutilations  do  not  create  that  kind  of  structural  brain  changes 
which  alone,  as  I  have  discovered,  are  the  basis  of  the  transmis- 
sion of  acquired  characters.  Now,  in  face  of  these  diverse  opin- 
ions, I  wanted  to  discover  if  parents  could  transmit  acquired 
characteristics,  and  how;  and  also  how  to  prevent  the  transmis- 
sion of  hereditary  or  acquired  immoral  characteristics. 

I  desire  to  put  myself  on  record  as  supporting  the  doctrine 
that  we  can  transmit  acquired  characteristics,  and  will  ex- 
plain some  experiments  which  prove  how  we  can  acquire  new 
capacities  which  we  did  not  inherit,  and  how  we  may  avoid  trans- 
mitting undesirable  traits. 

The  basis  of  these  experiments  on  heredity  are  some  experi- 
ments on  brain  building  which  I  made  earlier  in  my  life,  and 
about  which  I  gave  an  account,  four  years  ago,  in  a  lecture  at  the 
United  States  National  Museum,  under  the  auspices  of  two  of 
the  scientific  societies  of  Washington.  In  that  lecture  I  stated 
that  I  had  succeeded  in  demonstrating  to  my  own  satisfaction 
that  conscious  mental  activities  create  in  special  parts  of  the 
brain  new  chemical  and  anatomical  structures  which  are  the 
embodiments  of  those  conscious  experiences,  and  that  the  re- 
functioning  of  such  structures  are  essential  to  the  remembrance 
of  those  experiences;  and  that  by  a  systematic  and  taxonomic 
regulation  and  repetition  of  these  mental  activities  belonging 
to  some  one  definite  mental  faculty  I  had  succeeded  in  giving 
to  certain  animals  more  brain  cells  in  that  part  of  the  brain 
where  that  function  is  located,  and  that  I  gave  them  more 
brains  and  also  more  mind!  The  method  of  doing  this  I  have 
elsewhere  described,  and  I  described  it  in  that  lecture.  Briefly, 
it  consisted  in  giving  dogs  an  unusual  and  extraordinary  train- 
ing in  the  use  of  some  one  mental  faculty,  such  as  the  faculty  for 
the  discrimination  of  colors,  and  in  depriving  other  animals  (col- 
lie dogs)  of  the  same  age  and  species  of  the  opportunity  to  use 
that  function  (by  keeping  them,  as  in  the  above  case,  in  a  dark- 


244  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ened  room),  and  then,  after  the  first  group  had  been  trained 
twelve  months  and  the  second  group  had  been  deprived  of  the 
chance  to  use  that  function  for  an  equal  period  of  time,  I  killed 
them  and  examined  their  brains,  and  found  some  startling  re- 
sults— namely,  that  mental  activity  of  a  definite  kind  creates  in 
a  definite  part  of  the  brain  a  series  of  corresponding  new  struc- 
tures. The  dogs  that  had  been  kept  in  the  darkness  had  less 
than  the  usual  number  of  brain  cells  in  the  seeing  areas  of  the 
brain,  and  the  cells  were  smaller  than  normal;  and  the  dogs  that 
had  been  trained  to  discriminate  between  pitches,  hues,  tints, 
and  shades  of  color  many  times  per  day  for  twelve  months  had 
a  far  greater  than  the  usual  number  of  brain  cells  in  the  seeing 
areas  of  the  cerebral  cortex — a  greater  number  than  any  dog 
of  that  age  and  species  ever  before  had,  and  the  cells  were  also 
much  larger  and  more  complex  in  their  internal  structure,  and 
had  more  dendrites  and  collateral  filaments,  and  so  on.  Mind 
activity,  therefore,  creates  organic  structure,  and  organisms  are 
mind  embodiments.  But  I  gave  these  dogs  not  merely  more 
brain  cells,  but  more  mind  than  they  had  inherited — that  is, 
dogs  can  by  brain  building  get  acquired  characteristics. 

I  said  in  the  beginning  of  my  lecture  that  my  experiments 
would  have  to  be  confirmed  by  others  before  they  could  become 
part  of  the  body  of  modern  science.  I  am  therefore  happy  to 
say  that  one  experimenter  has  done  work  since  I  made  a  public 
statement  of  my  conclusions  which  corroborates  my  basic  con- 
clusions. I  refer  to  Prof.  Aurelio  Lui,  of  Stephano's  laboratory, 
in  Italy,  whose  researches  are  described  in  vol.  xx,  page  218,  and 
vol.  xxii,  page  27,  of  the  Revista  Sperimentale  di  Frenatria,  etc., 
for  1894.  I  refer  to  the  report  in  full,  but  will  state  that  he 
concludes  that  as  animals  more  and  more  acquire  the  faculty 
of  walking,  the  corresponding  parts  of  the  brain  acquire  a  greater 
number  of  brain  cells,  and  that  these  cells  become  more  com- 
plex, and  so  on.  I  have  mentioned  this  in  order  to  give  you 
more  confidence  in  my  conclusions  regarding  my  experiments 
on  heredity  and  the  transmission  of  acquired  characters. 

It  fortunately  occurred  to  me  to  apply  this  law  of  brain  build- 
ing to  the  successive  descendants  of  a  male  and  female  Guinea 
pig  for  five  generations,  and  I  found  that  the  fifth  generation 


THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.  245 

was  born  with  a  far  greater  number  of  brain  cells  than  could  be 
found  in  animals  not  thus  trained.  I  applied  brain  building  to 
the  seeing  areas  of  these  Guinea  pigs,  and  when  I  had  given 
them  as  many  new  brain  cells  representing  as  many  color  mem- 
ories as  I  could,  I  then  allowed  them  to  propagate,  and  applied 
the  same  brain-building  process  to  two  of  their  descendants,  and 
so  on  until  the  fifth  generation.  The  Guinea  pigs  of  this  fifth 
generation  were  killed  as  soon  as  they  were  born  and  their 
brains  examined.  I  found  in  the  seeing  areas  of  these  brains  a 
far  greater  number  of  cells  than  I  had  ever  been  able  to  find 
in  the  corresponding  areas  of  Guinea  pigs  whose  ancestors  had 
not  thus  been  trained.  These  experiments  prove  that  acquired 
characters  can  be  transmitted,  and  reveal  the  method  for  acquir- 
ing character  that  has  not  been  hereditarily  transmitted.  Other 
experimenters  will  repeat  my  researches,  and  I  am  sure  will 
find  similar  results.  The  way  to  create  a  new  character  is  to 
cause  the  mental  activities  to  create  new  brain  structures,  and 
this  law  promises  to  lay  the  basis  of  a  science  of  begetting 
children. 

It  lies  in  our  power  to  create  by  voluntary  effort  previous 
to  the  begetting  of  a  child  such  brain  structures  as  we  may 
desire  to  transmit.  Is  this  not  a  momentous  opportunity  and  an 
awe-inspiring  responsibility  ? 

This  law  is  operative  in  the  lowest  known  forms  of  life,  sim- 
ple cells,  the  physiological  units,  which  are  also  the  psychological 
units  of  all  higher  forms  of  life  on  earth.  If  such  cells  are  caused 
to  engage  in  some  one  definite  mental  activity  over  and  over 
again,  generation  after  generation,  new  structures  will  be  cre- 
ated in  the  cells,  and  those  structures  will  differ  as  the  mental 
activities  differ.  Cells  feel  stimuli,  and  this  feeling  is  a  mental 
activity,  and  when  it  is  caused  to  be  systematically  repeated,  a 
structure  will  arise  which  is  the  embodiment  of  that  kind  of 
mental  action.  It  is  mind  that  distinguishes  inanimate  from 
animate  matter.  By  this  process  we  do  not  kill  off  all  those 
cells  which  can  not  respond  to  the  stimulus,  which  would  be 
the  method  of  survival  of  the  fittest;  but  we  cause  all  of  the  cells, 
without  killing  any  of  them,  to  engage  in  the  excessive  repeti- 
tion of  some  one  of  their  mental  activities,  and  thus  produce  new 
17 


246  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

structures  in  the  cells,  which  at  the  commencement  of  the  ex- 
periment the  cells  did  not  possess.  This  seems  to  prove  con- 
clusively that  structures  and  mental  characters  can  be  acquired 
other  than  those  hereditarily  transmitted,  and  that  all  of  the 
structures  and  mental  capacities  created  by  the  brain-building 
process  can  be  transmitted. 

Another  experiment  of  fundamental  importance  consists  in 
determining  the  chemical  constituents  of  the  human  secretions 
and  excretions  when  the  person  is  under  the  influence  of  differ- 
ent emotions.  The  evil  and  painful  emotions  create  in  a  very 
few  minutes  poisonous  chemical  products  in  the  fluids  of  the 
body.  Thus,  anger  produces  a  different  poison  than  fear,  and 
sorrow  a  still  different  product,  and  all  of  the  evil  and  the  de- 
pressing emotions  produce  katabolic  and  poisonous  products 
which  lower  the  tide  of  life,  while  the  good  and  pleasurable  and 
sublime  emotions  create  in  the  blood  and  within  the  cellular 
substances  of  the  body  a  series  of  anabolic  and  nutritive  products 
which  augment  every  physiologic  and  psychologic  function.  Now 
it  can  be  shown  that  these  products  of  the  evil  emotions  interfere 
with  the  rate  and  completeness  of  cellular  development  by  retarda- 
tion and  by  the  production  of  various  abnormalities,  while  the 
anabolic  products  promote  normal  cellular  growth.  Thus  I 
found  that  the  rate  of  cellular  multiplication  in  lower  organisms 
— that  is,  the  frequency  of  cellular  segmentation  within  a  given 
time — is  lessened  by  these  poisonous  products.  The  application 
is  this:  It  is  well  known  that  the  child  during  the  nine  months 
of  gestation  grows  from  a  single  cell  by  cell  multiplication  to  a 
fully  developed  child,  and  that  during  this  period  at  certain 
times  the  several  developments  of  certain  organs  commence; 
thus  at  a  given  period  the  spinal  cord  commences  to  form,  at 
another  period  the  liver,  or  the  heart,  or  the  brain,  or  a  certain 
part  of  the  brain,  and  if  at  the  time  when  an  organ  is  just  com- 
mencing to  form  the  mother  throws  into  her  blood,  through 
harboring  some  evil  emotion,  some  of  these  poisonous  products, 
she  will  feed  the  child  with  them,  and  thus  arrest  the  normal 
rate  of  cell  multiplication,  and  that  organ  will  fail  to  attain 
normal  growth  in  size  and  be  otherwise  vitiated.  But  if  instead 
of  this  all  of  the  good  emotions  are  dirigated  into  activity,  then 


THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.  247 

the  child  will  get  all  of  the  normal  nutritive  products  essential 
to  complete  growth  of  all  its  parts. 

But  these  emotive  products  affect  also  the  sperm  cell  of  the 
male  and  the  egg  cell  of  the  female;  hence  the  parents  should 
for  at  least  six  months  or  a  year  before  creating  a  child  avoid 
all  evil  emotions  and  dirigate  all  good  emotions,  so  that  the 
germ  and  egg  may  carry  to  the  conceptive  process  normal  struc- 
tural and  chemical  growth,  so  that  none  of  the  evil  emotions 
may  have  distorted  the  hereditary  desirable  qualities,  and  so 
that  all  of  the  good  emotions  through  their  nutritive  products 
may  have  enabled  these  germ  plasms  to  convey  the  desirable 
qualities.  During  these  fateful  nine  months  of  gestation  the 
child  ontogenetically  repeats  the  phylogenetic  history  of  the 
evolution  of  life  on  earth;  it  passes  through  all  of  the  stages  from 
the  lowest  to  the  highest,  and  if  the  normal  nutritive  anabolic 
products  only  feed  the  child  all  of  these  stages  will  be  normally 
completed,  but  every  evil  emotion  will  arrest  or  pervert  some  of 
these  stages  by  interfering  with  the  rate  and  character  of  cell 
development  in  the  child.  Bring  into  daily  use  all  of  the  happy, 
good,  moral,  esthetic,  altruistic,  sublime,  worshipful  emotions 
before  and  during  gestation,  avoiding  absolutely  all  of  the  irasci- 
ble, unhappy,  painful,  critical,  immoral,  and  evil  emotions,  and 
you  will  transmit  the  better  characteristics  to  your  child  just 
to  the  extent  that  you  have  builded  their  corresponding  struc- 
tures in  your  brain.  Have  plenty  of  normal  exercise,  plenty  to 
eat,  and  have  plenty  of  rest  and  sleep. 

Remember  that  only  those  characteristics  of  intellectual  and 
emotive  activity  which  you  have  structurally  builded  in  your 
brain  previous  to  the  creation  of  the  child  can  be  transmitted 
to  your  offspring;  hence  the  parental  training  should,  to  pro- 
duce best  results,  commence  long  before  the  creation  of  a  child, 
and  even  these  results  can  be  arrested  during  gestation  by  wrong 
emotions.  When  you  put  into  the  brain  new  structures  by  men- 
tal activity,  these  structures  will  be  transmitted  like  all  other  of 
your  anatomical  traits,  but  during  gestation  these  traits  may 
be  augmented  by  good  or  perverted  by  evil  emotions.  Conscious 
activities  must  create  memory  structures  in  the  brain  before 
the  capacities  represented  by  these  conscious  activities  can  be 


NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

transmitted.  The  experiment  upon  white  mice,  previously  men- 
tioned, in  which  their  tails  were  cut  off  for  a  number  of  suc- 
ceeding generations,  failed  to  develop  mice  without  tails,  be- 
cause cutting  off  tails  was  not  a  process  of  brain  building.  If  you 
train  these  mice  to  use  their  tails  in  a  prehensile  manner,  so  as 
to  develop  in  the  brains  of  the  mice  a  new  series  of  more  skillful 
memory  structures  of  muscular  motions  in  their  tails  for  several 
generations,  you  will  find  the  fourth  generation  will  be  born 
with  greater  prehensile  tail  capacity.  This  experiment  is  of 
fundamental  importance  in  this  subject.  The  mind  activity 
must  initiate  the  change  in  the  brain  structures  if  you  would 
transmit  an  acquired  character. 

And  now  I  would  like  to  utter  an  appeal  through  you  to  all 
mothers:  The  incoming  generation  looks  to  you  to  be  well  born. 
It  is  seen  to  be  a  fearful  responsibility  to  bring  into  the  world 
;a  human  being  when  we  realize  that  we  have  it  in  our  power 
;to  direct  for  weal  or  for  woe  the  intellective  and  emotive  char- 
•acter  and  moral  disposition  of  the  child  yet  unborn  and  uncre- 
.ated.  Therefore  it  falls  to  the  duty  of  parents  to  make  ade- 
quate preparation  for  the  creation  of  a  child;  the  whole  qnes- 
,tion  of  hereditary  transmission  and  mind  building  and  allied 
subjects  should  be  systematically  and  exhaustively  studied  in 
biological  and  psychological  laboratories,  the  data  carefully  veri- 
fied, and  the  knowledge  diffused  in  such  shape  that  parents  can 
apply  it. 

America — the  whole  world — calls  to  us  for  better  men  and 
women,  and  if  we  do  our  duty  and  take  advantages  of  the  op- 
portunities offered  by  science,  the  next  generation  will  have  less 
sorrow,  war,  crime,  and  disease,  and  the  number  of  defectives 
will  be  less. 

I  wish  to  reiterate  that  every  conscious  experience  creates 
in  some  part  of  the  brain  a  definite  structure,  that  every  evil 
emotion  creates  in  you  poisons  and  that  good  emotions  create 
nutritive  products,  and  you  can  regulate  these  conditions  at  will. 
Those  emotive  and  intellective  activities  of  your  mind  which 
you  have  not  systematically  exercised  so  as  to  create  structures 
in  your  brain  before  the  creation  of  a  child  will  not  be  trans- 
mitted to  that  child;  and  what  is  transmitted  to  the  foetus  at 


THE  ART  OF  REARING  CHILDREN.  249 

the  beginning  of  gestation  will  be  arrested  or  augmented  ac- 
cording to  the  kind  of  products  thrown  into  the  blood  by  the 
mother's  emotions.  A  mother  knowing  this  dare  not  harbor 
in  her  heart  any  of  the  evil  emotions,  and  knowing  that  happi- 
ness, serenity,  love,  and  all  pleasurable  emotions  create  nutritive 
products,  do  you  think  she  will  neglect  to  bring  into  her  mind 
daily  and  systematically  all  of  these  conditions?  She  will  go 
by  herself  an  hour  or  more  each  day,  in  quiet  and  silence  and 
away  from  all  distracting  influences,  and  call  up  each  one  of 
the  desirable  emotional  conditions  to  the  fullest  possible  in- 
tensity and  joyousness  and  worshipful  adoration;  and  oh, mother, 
if  it  be  your  privilege  to  cultivate  your  good  emotions  one  year 
before  the  creation  of  the  child,  inhibiting  all  wrong  and  selfish 
emotions,  and  if  it  be  your  further  privilege  to  have  had  cre- 
ated in  your  brain  all  kinds  of  intellectual  structures  from  a 
study  of  the  sciences,  you  will  then  have  a  fair  chance  to  create 
a  better  child  than  you  could  otherwise  have  done.  Our  coun- 
try demands  and  your  mother  love  craves  such  a  child,  and  I 
believe  that  in  bringing  about  such  a  state  of  things  we  must 
look  most  to  the  influence  of  the  mothers.  A  wife's  love  •  is 
something  for  which  a  man  will  strive;  therefore  let  the  wife 
give  her  creative  love  only  when  a  man  is  worthy  of  it,  only 
when  he  has  for  some  months  at  least  been  leading  a  noble, 
courageous,  and  unselfish  life.  Oh,  do  not  create  a  child  during 
the  months  of  dark  despondency  and  wrongdoing,  if  such  there 
be,  but  wait  until  life  is  cheerful  and  morally  clear!  A  wife  can 
control  this  fountain  of  life;  she  can  grant  her  privileges  only 
for  worthy  motives,  and  any  man  worthy  of  them  will  lead  such 
a  life  as  to  deserve  them. 

Produce  great  persons — great  persons — and  all  other  things 
follow.  To  create  great  persons  is  the  divine  task  of  parentage — 
to  give  to  the  world  greater  and  better  men  and  women.  Ameri- 
ca asks  for  such  men  and  women,  and  in  the  words  of  the  poet 
she  says: 

Bring  me  men  to  match  my  mountains, 

Bring  me  men  to  match  my  plains, 
Men  with  empires  in  their  purpose, 

Men  with  eras  in  their  brains. 


250  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Bring  me  men  to  match  my  prairies, 

Men  to  match  my  inland  seas, 
Men  whose  thought  shall  pave  a  highway 

Up  to  ampler  destinies. 

Oh,  the  great  and  glorious  task  of  parentage!  It  seems  to 
me  that  the  most  responsible  position  in  which  a  man  and  woman 
can  be  placed  is  that  of  begetting  and  rearing  a  child;  it  re- 
quires the  most  preparation,  the  highest  knowledge,  the  great- 
est self-control,  and  the  supremest  patience,  self-sacrifice,  and 
love.  It  seems  to  me  that  the  religion  of  the  future  will  center 
closely  around  the  conjugal  life  and  the  cradle,  and  that  science, 
art,  and  philosophy  will  be  content  to  bring  their  fairest  gifts 
to  the  hymeneal  altar.  The  mother  must  not  be  enthroned 
merely  in  our  love,  but  she  must  sit .  enthroned  over  the  weal 
of  the  incoming  generation;  she  has  the  making  and  training  of 
the  fathers  and  mothers  of  the  future. 

I  believe  no  possible  training  after  the  child  is  born  can 
equal  in  importance  what  can  be  done  before  birth. 

Oh,  mothers  of  America,  my  appeal  is  that  you  study  the 
laws  of  life  and  mind,  the  laws  of  transmission  of  character,  and 
learn  enough  about  your  own  minds  so  that  you  may  eliminate 
all  undesirable  emotions  and  dirigate  into  activity  the  desirable 
ones!  I  believe  that  only  by  experimental  study  can  we  arrive 
at  the  knowledge  of  parentage  we  desire. 

Can  you  conceive  of  a  nobler  undertaking  than  that  of  pre- 
paring for  the  creation  of  a  child?  Can  you  think  of  anything 
more  beautiful  than  a  mother  going  off  alone  into  the  quiet  of 
her  own  room,  free  from  all  interruptions,  for  an  hour's  daily 
rest  and  inhibition  of  all  unrestful  and  evil  emotions,  and  for 
the  dirigation  of  all  the  highest  aspirations  and  emotions,  and 
for  the  contemplation  of  the  greatest  subjects  known  to  the 
human  mind?  If  you  do  this  you  will  give  a  legacy  to  your 
child  better  than  gold  and  rank,  and  you  will  bring  into  your  life 
the  greatest  and  the  purest  joy  you  can  ever  know  in  this  world. 

Let  me  repeat  that  mind  activities  build  brain,  structures, 
and  according  to  the  systematic  character  and  emotive  quality 
of  those  activities  will  be  the  character  of  the  structures  which 
you  will  transmit  to  your  child;  and  after  the  creation  of  the 


ORGANIZATION.  251 

child  the  growth  during  the  nine  months  will  he  promoted  or 
hindered  according  as  the  mother  throws  into  her  hlood  the 
nutritive  products  of  the  good  emotions  and  keeps  out  of  her 
hlood  the  poisonous  products  of  the  evil  emotions.  According 
to  your  skill  in  doing  this  will  you  convey  to  your  child  the  best 
and  the  noblest  of  all  legacies — a  capable  and  moral  mind. 


ORGANIZATION. 

BY  MRS.  ELLEN  M.  HENROTIN, 

President  of  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  Chicago,  HI. 

MADAM  PRESIDENT,  LADIES,  AND  GENTLEMEN:  The  subject 
of  the  address  which  I  have  the  honor  of  giving  to  you  this 
evening  is  Organization — that  great  principle,  that  strongest 
power  of  the  present  century.  It  is  voluntary  organization. 
Organization  in  some  form  has  been  well  known  for  centuries — 
organizations  of  force,  organizations  more  or  less  official — but  it 
has  been  the  nineteenth  century  that  has  developed  the  present 
forms  of  voluntary  organization.  Any  demand  which  voluntary 
organization  makes  on  the  individual  is  totally  different  from 
the  demand  made  by  organizations  that  are  official  or  military. 
In  the  past  the  church  organizations  demanded  of  the  individual 
that  he  should  subordinate  his  life,  give  it  up,  as  it  were,  live 
a  separate  life;  but  the  new  voluntary  organizations  ask  of  the 
individual  a  fuller  individual  life  rather  than  a  more  restricted 
one.  The  organizations  that  are  voluntary  among  men  are 
chiefly  political,  industrial,  religious;  those  among  women  are 
humanitarian  and  social.  This  trend  toward  organization  is 
not  confined  to  our  country.  Its  great  power  consists  in  that  it 
is  a  world  power.  Women  are  organizing  quite  as  much  in 
Europe  as  they  are  in  this  country.  In  England,  for  instance, 
the  political  organizations  are  much  stronger  than  in  America, 
and  they  have  carried  on  an  agitation  which  in  amount  is  equal 


252  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF,  MOTHERS. 

to  the  second  reading  of  the  bill  for  the  parliamentary  franchise 
of  England.  In  France  women  are  organizing  largely  on  humani- 
tarian lines,  not  comprehending  as  yet  the  social  trend  which 
organization  has  taken  in  this  country.  In  Germany  we  find 
the  same  phase — largely  philanthropic  is  the  aim  of  most  wom- 
en's organizations.  At  a  Congress,  held  last  summer  in  Berlin, 
the  German  women  had  become  so  expert,  so  well  trained  by 
their  organizations,  that  they  were  able  to  express  themselves 
with  dignity  and  with  force  on  all  subjects  which  pertain  to 
social,  educational,  and  moral  life. 

One  of  the  phases  of  organization  in  this  country  is  largely 
social.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  trades  unions  and  industrial 
organizations  will  never  succeed  in  this  country  as  they  have 
in  England,  from  the  fact  that  the  social  element  is  so  strong 
among  us.  No  matter  what  the  aim  may  be  in  an  industrial 
organization,  you  find  that  before  it  has  been  formed  two  or 
three  months  the  women  have  introduced  some  social  element. 
That  great  social  force  in  organizations  among  women  is  des- 
tined to  do  away  with  all  the  artificial  barriers  of  convention- 
ality, and  ultimately  it  will  sweep  away  even  the  barriers  of 
competitive  industrial  conditions.  In  this  great  power,  first 
recognized  among  women  not  more  than  thirty  or  forty  years 
ago,  I  think  we  may  see  that  the  lead  was  taken  by  the  mission- 
ary and  church  associations.  Then  followed  the  Sanitary  Com- 
mission; and  after  that  came  the  great  humanitarian  associa- 
tions such  as  we  see  to-day,  which  have  done  the  magnificent 
work  of  the  Suffrage  Associations,  the  National  Council  of 
Women,  the  General  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs;  and  I  be- 
lieve that  the  flower  and  crown  of  all  associations  among  women 
came  to  us  in  the  Columbian  Exposition  in  the  Board  of  Lady 
Managers,  which  was  all-comprehensive,  and  in  the  great  Con- 
gress of  the  Columbian  celebration;  and  to  that  movement  is 
attributable  the  fact  that  we  are  able  to-day  to  hold  a  Congress 
of  Mothers  in  the  United  States. 

Now  a  word  as  to  what  organization  means.  It  means  a 
striving  after  unity.  In  other  words,  it  is  law,  and  law  is  God. 
In  all  these  great  organizations  specialization  is  ceasing,  as  it 
is  in  the  individual  life,  and  we  are  able  to  say  that  we  do 


ORGANIZATION.  253 

not  contend  with  each  other;  we  do  not  interfere  with  each 
other;  we  all  build  up  on  certain  lines  to  produce  a  great 
harmonious  whole,  each  organization  bringing  its  own  special 
work,  its  own  special  point  of  view,  until  we  have  that  har- 
monious, general  view  on  which  a  vast  social  life  must  be  based, 
and  which  is  the  crown  and  the  aim  of  all  civilization.  It  was 
thought,  I  believe,  ten  or  fifteen  years  ago,  that  different  asso- 
ciations interfered  with  each  other  more  or  less;  but,  in  watch- 
ing the  race  development,  we  see  that  that  is  not  so;  that  we 
must  first  specialize  in  order  to  reach  the  point,  and  finally 
weave  it  all  into  a  great  whole  to  get  the  proper  proportions. 
Now  think  to-day  what  this  Congress  of  Mothers  means.  It 
means  that  you  are  going  to  your  own  homes  carrying  to  them 
the  thought  that  all  in  the  universe  tends  to  order,  and  you 
express  it  by  such  an  association,  such  a  meeting  as  this.  Think 
of  the  home.  What  does  the  home  mean?  And  believe  me, 
while  I  speak  of  it,  that  we  make  a  mistake  to  say  that  any  home 
can  be  submerged.  It  never  can  be.  Where  you  have  father, 
mother,  and  child,  the  trinit}^  you  have  the  essentials  of  the 
divine  principle  of  love,  and  no  social  conditions  can  ever  sub- 
merge it.  Take,  for  instance,  the  training  of  the  child  in  the 
home.  We  know  now  that  it  is  the  positive,  the  constructive 
statement  that  is  of  value.  And  what  does  that  shut  out  from 
us?  All  arguments  in  the  home,  all  strife,  all  contention.  We 
know  that  it  is  founded  in  unity.  We  know  that  it  means  only 
order.  Take  the  individual  lives  which  women  used  to  lead 
before  they  correlated  their  lives  with  the  social  life.  It  was 
separate,  therefore  argumentative,  alone;  without  expression, 
without  voice,  and  therefore  it  was  depressed;  it  was  with 
an  idea  that  they  must  live  entirely  for  others.  And  now, 
as  I  have  said  before,  they  have  changed  that  little  pronoun 
"  I  "  into  "  we,"  and  correlated  their  lives  Avith  the  entire  family 
and  social  life.  Women  are  destined  in  this  country,  as  in  all 
countries,  to  keep  alive  ideality.  Not  long  ago,  in  speaking 
with  a  great  foreign  artist  who  was  visiting  this  country,  he  said: 
"  When  I  see  the  tremendous  civilization  here,  your  men  of 
iron  and  steel,  the  great  type  of  men  which  you  are  evolving, 
the  most  powerful  men  in  the  world  as  a  type,  I  almost  despair. 


25i  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

But  when  I  look  into  the  faces  of  your  women,  and  see  the 
courage  of  their  convictions  shining  in  their  eyes,  I  know  that 
they  are  pledged  to  the  spiritual  side  of  life,  and  I  know  that 
any  cause  to  which  the  women  are  pledged  will  triumph."  And 
it  means  that  not  only  in  our  lives,  but  in  our  organizations,  we 
are  reading  that  beautiful  word,  reciprocity.  We  are  learning 
to  co-operate  each  with  the  other,  to  contribute  the  best  which 
we  have  for  the  good  of  the  home;  and  in  such  a  Congress  as 
this,  which  can  call  upon  all  the  science,  and  all  the  wisdom  not 
only  of  this  world  but  of  the  next,  certainly  the  triumph  of 
motherhood  is  exemplified.  But,  above  all,  it  means  that  women 
are  looking  to  and  depending  on  themselves;  that  their  own 
dignity,  their  own  convictions,  and  no  false  standard  of  the  out- 
side world  shall  for  the  future  guide  them.  In  the  series  of 
resolutions  which  have  been  presented  to-day,  that  one  which 
speaks  of  the  unity  of  life,  one  cause  correlated  with  another,  is 
exemplified  in  the  phrase  which  I  will  leave  with  you,  "  The  day 
of  days,  the  feast  day  of  the  human  soul,  is  when  the  inward 
eye  first  opens  to  the  unity  of  life." 


APPENDIX  TO  THE  REPORT  OF  THE 
FIRST  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 


COMMENTARY  ON  THE  CONGRESS. 

THE  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers  was  held  in  the 
Banquet  Hall  of  the  Arlington  Hotel,  Washington,  D.  C.,  and 
was  called  to  order  on  Wednesday  morning,  February  17,  1897, 
by  Mrs.  Phebe  A.  Hearst,  First  Vice-President  of  the  Congress. 
The  audience,  led  by  the  Eev.  W.  A.  Bartlett,  joined  in  singing 
America.  Prayer  was  offered  by  Eev.  William  H.  Millburn, 
chaplain  of  the  United  States  Senate,  followirg  which  Mrs. 
Hearst  presented  Mrs.  Theodore  W.  Birney,  President  of  the 
Congress,  who  read  the  address  of  welcome,  to  which  Mrs.  Mary 
Lowe  Dickinson,  of  New  York  city,  responded.  Mrs.  Dickin- 
son, as  the  President  of  the  National  Council  of  Women,  repre- 
senting the  largest  organization  of  women  in  the  world,  was 
most  fittingly  chosen  to  speak,  not  only  for  the  seven  hundred 
thousand  and  more  whom  she  represents,  but  for  all  mother- 
hood. 

It  is  an  interesting  fact,  and  one  worthy  of  special  note,  that 
the  attendance  at  this  meeting  was  so  great  that  hundreds,  un- 
able to  gain  admittance,  were  turned  away,  to  the  great  dis- 
appointment of  all  concerned. 

One  of  the  largest  churches  in  Washington  was  immediately 
secured  for  all  the  subsequent  sessions. 

Following  the  morning  meeting  at  the  Arlington  occurred 
the  mothers'  reception  at  the  White  House,  tendered  by  Mrs. 
Grover  Cleveland,  wife  of  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
who  graciously  received  the  two  thousand  who  came  in  place  of 

255 


256  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

the  few  hundred  that  were  expected.  The  afternoon  session 
was  held  in  the  First  Baptist  Church.  Even  the  large  audience 
room  of  this  church  was  not  sufficient  to  accommodate  the  many 
who  crowded  to  attend  the  Congress.  Overflow  meetings  were 
held  in  the  vestry  and  adjoining  rooms,  where  the  speakers 
kindly  appeared  and  delivered  their  addresses  a  second  time  to 
enthusiastic  audiences. 

The  President  of  the  Congress  presided  over  the  main  meet- 
ings; she  was  kindly  assisted  in  the  overflow  meetings  by  volun- 
teer chairmen  who  had  come  as  guests  to  the  Congress.  Miss 
Frances  E.  Newton  presided  as  chairman  of  the  conference  work, 
which  formed  no  small  part  in  the  value  of  the  sessions.  She 
was  assisted  at  the  various  meetings  by  a  number  of  ladies,  who 
were  specially  interested  in  the  topics  discussed  at  these  con- 
ferences. 

The  address  which  opened  the  regular  sessions  was  en- 
titled Primitive  Motherhood,  and  was  most  ably  presented  by 
Mr.  F.  Hamilton  Gushing,  of  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Ethnology. 

Not  a  moment  was  wasted  during  the  three  days'  Congress. 
The  programme  was  fully  and  promptly  carried  out,  only  three 
speakers  having  failed  to  attend.  Mr.  Hamilton  W.  Mabie,  of 
New  York,  and  Mrs.  W.  H.  Felton,  of  Georgia,  could  not  be  pres- 
ent in  person,  but  sent  their  papers,  which  appear  in  this  volume, 
and  in  part  compensate  for  the  disappointment  occasioned  by 
their  absence.  Mrs.  Carrie  Stanton  Blatch,  of  New  York,  was 
detained  by  illness.  Her  address  would  have  been  extemporane- 
ous, therefore  her  affliction  was  and  is  our  loss.  Several  charm- 
ing recitations  by  Mrs.  Margaret  E.  Sangster,  of  New  York,  and 
by  Miss  Julia  King,  of  Boston,  were  rendered  upon  call  from 
the  audience,  Mrs.  Sangster  giving  one  of  her  own  poems.  By 
request  an  appropriate  song  was  also  given  by  Mrs.  Herbert  D. 
Claude,  of  Chevy  Chase,  Md. 

Among  the  pleasant  and  impromptu  affairs  were  the  recep- 
tions to  the  delegates  and  guests  by  the  Official  Board.  These 
were  held  in  the  parlors  of  the  Arlington  Hotel  at  the  close  of 
the  evening  sessions.  Mrs.  Theodore  W.  Birney,  the  President, 
and  Mrs.  Hearst,  the  First  Vice-President,  assisted  by  other 


APPENDIX.  257 

members  of  the  Board,  were  constant  in  their  attendance 
from  the  early  morning  sessions  to  the  last  hour  of  each  active 
day. 

Numerous  resolutions  of  interest  were  offered  to  the  Con- 
gress; therefore  a  committee  was  appointed  to  receive  and  formu- 
late them,  that  in  their  presentation  repetition  might  be  avoided 
and  time  saved.  As  soon  as  it  was  known  that  provision  for  the 
reception  of  resolutions  had  been  made,  the  expressions  and  calls 
for  sympathy  and  indorsement  on  many  good  lines  of  work 
poured  in.  The  work  of  classification,  assimilation,  and  con- 
densation had  to  be  done  in  a  very  short  time,  in  order  to  pre- 
sent the  results  to  the  Congress  and  delegates  before  adjourn- 
ment. Many  of  the  resolutions  offered  were  excellent.  Some 
of  them  were  repetitions  in  thought,  though  different  in  ex- 
pression. The  committee  was  instructed  that  the  resolutions 
must  be  confined  to  the  work  of  the. Congress,  which  aims  to  deal 
simply  and  directly  with  the  relations  of  parent  and  child; 
therefore  they  were  obliged  to  eliminate  much  that  was  worthy, 
and  which  is  already  successfully  exploited  by  organizations 
working  for  those  special  ends. 

The  Board  of  Officers  have  been  holding  frequent  meetings 
since  the  close  of  the  Congress,  under  the  wise  guidance  of  Mrs. 
Hearst  as  presiding  officer,  Mrs.  Birney  having  been  called  to 
the  Pacific  coast.  As  a  partial  result  of  the  earnest  work  done, 
they  have  prepared  and  adopted  a  "  Declaration  of  Principles/' 
which  is  now  given,  together  with  the  promise  of  a  leaflet,  which 
will  be  issued  by  the  Board  in  the  autumn.  This  leaflet  will 
further  define  the  plans  and  the  character  of  the  work  to  be 
done,  and  will  especially  explain  the  status  of  delegates.  This 
circular  will  be  sent  on  application,  and  to  all  having  ordered 
this  report. 

Any  information  concerning  the  work  of  the  Congress  may 
be  obtained  by  applying  to  the  "  Secretary  of  the  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers,"  Washington  Loan  and  Trust  Building,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C.,  inclosing  a  stamped  and  addressed  envelope  for  a 
reply. 

The  success  of  the  movement  reported  in  this  volume  is  due 
to  its  friends,  who  contributed  in  many  ways.  Among  these, 


258  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Mrs.  Hearst's  name  stands  foremost.  Contributions  in  money 
were  also  received  from  Mrs.  George  Westinghouse,  Mr.  I.  W. 
Drummond,  and  Mr.  Edward  B.  Brown,  while  others  gave  freely 
of  their  time  and  thought.  The  work  of  preparing  the  pro- 
gramme fell  unexpectedly  upon  the  Corresponding  Secretary, 
Miss  Butler,  who,  though  assisted  by  friendly  advice,  must  re- 
ceive the  full  credit  for  rare  perseverance  and  judgment  in 
accomplishing  this  work  in  the  remarkably  short  space  of  six 
weeks. 

Throughout  the  land  the  press  has  been  a  power,  disseminat- 
ing the  facts  of  our  existence  and  promoting  our  cause.  To  one 
and  all,  hearty  thanks  are  extended  and  continued  interest  in- 
vited. 

The  Board  of  Officers  desires  to  learn  of  all  work  organized 
on  lines  similar  to  that  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers, 
and  cordially  invites  co-operation. 

The  Committee  on  Literature  has  prepared  a  List  of  Books 
which  it  is  believed  will  be  helpful  to  mothers'  clubs  and  to  indi- 
viduals. The  list  may  be  found  on  the  last  pages  of  the  Ap- 
pendix. 


LIST  OF  DELEGATES. 

NOTE. — If  the  name  of  any  delegate  is  omitted,  will  such  send  word, 
with  the  full  address  of  delegate,  to  the  clerk,  Headquarters  of  National 
Congress  of  Mothers,  Washington  Loan  and  Trust  Building,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Adams,  Miss  Sarah,  care  of  Pine  Tree  Kindergarten  Associa- 
tion, Portland,  Me. 

Adams,  Mrs.  W.  I.  L.,  249  Orange  Road,  Montclair,  N.  J. 

Ager,  Mrs.  J.  C.,  98  South  Eliot  Place,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Alger,  Mrs.,  care  of  Mrs.  Fessenden,  171  Tremont  Street,  Boston, 
Mass. 

Allen,  Dr.  Mary  Wood,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Allen,  Miss  Willette,  Atlanta,  Ga. 


APPENDIX.  259 

Allen,  Mrs.  C.  E.,  International  Kindergarten  Union,  Salt  Lake 
City,  Utah. 

Allen,  Mrs.  John  A.,  1520  Mississippi  Avenue,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Ambler,  Mrs.  J.  M.  B.,  Chatham,  N.  Y. 

Amies,  Mrs.  Olive  Pond,  1438  Richfield  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Anthony,  Mr.  Herbert  Mills,  1207  Market  Street,  San  Fran- 
cisco, Cal. 

Appleton,  Mrs.  B.  Ross,  Public  Library  Association,  Brooklyn, 
N.  Y. 

Atwell,  Mrs.  Edwin,  Mount  Holyoke  Alumnae,  New  York  city. 

Aus,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Lange,  Box  9,  Brookland,  D.  C. 

Bailey,  Mrs.  Fannie  J.,  Rectory,  St.  Peter's  Church,  Albany, 
N.  Y. 

Bailey,  Mrs.  I.  D.,  care  of  Young  Men's  Christian  Association, 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Baldwin,  Mrs.  C.  C.,  11  Cedar  Street,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Ball,  Mrs.  Farland  Q.,  15  Washington  Street,  Chicago,  111. 

Barnes,  Mrs.  C.  P.,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Barnes,  Mrs.  F.  Schwedler,  16  East  Sixtieth  Street,  New  York 
city. 

Barnes,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  33  Kearney  Street,  Newark,  N.  J. 

Bartlett,  Mrs.  Jane  W.,  247  North  Twentieth  Street,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Bartlett,  Jr.,  Mrs.  J.  K.,  2100  Mount  Royal  Terrace,  Balti- 
more, Md. 

Bassett,  Mrs.  Ann,  Ypsilanti,  Mich. 

Benedict,  Mrs.  J.  K.,  2100  Mount  Royal  Terrace,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Berle,  Mrs.  A.  A.,  Brighton,  Mass. 

Berlin,  Mrs.  A.  H.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Beyer,  Mrs.  C.  C.,  Box  224,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Blankenburg,  Mrs.  L.  L.,  214  West  Logan  Square,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Blunt,  Miss  Alice  Key,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Borton,  Mrs.  Edwin  L.,  Salem,  Woodstown,  N.  J. 

Bostwick,  Mrs.  Mary  R.,  12  Cuba  Street,  Watertown,  Mass. 

Bourne,  Mrs.  Emma,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 

Boyd,  Miss  S.  B.,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Brazza,  Countess  Cora  di,  254  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  city. 


260  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Brewer,  Mrs.  J.  B.,  Rockville,  Md. 

Brock,  Mrs.  Horace,  Lebanon,  Pa. 

Brown,  Mrs.  Arthur,  International  Kindergarten  Union,  Salt 
Lake  City,  Utah. 

Bruce,  Mrs.  B.  K.,  2010  R  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Burrows,  Mrs.  J.  C.,  Kalamazoo,  Mich. 

Burt,  Mrs.  Mary  Towne,  217  West  134th  Street,  New  York  city. 

Byer,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Campbell,  Mrs.  E.  L.,  Free  Kindergarten,  Wayne,  Ind. 

Carpenter,  Rev.  Marian,  Detroit,  Mich. 

Carroll,  Mrs.  Frances  A.,  care  of  Miss  Willard,  Castile,  N.  Y. 

Carter,  Mrs.  John  M.,  Mount  Washington,  Md. 

Catchings,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  H.,  910  F  Street,  N.  W.,  Washing- 
ton, D.  C. 

Cathcart,  Miss  F.  A.,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 

Cawood,  Mrs.  Rose  Mead,  Maryville,  Tenn. 

Chamberlain,  Mrs.  H.  A.,  7  Winter  Street,  West  Summerville, 
Mass. 

Chapin,  Mrs.  Grace  L.,  care  of  Mrs.  J.  S.  Bartlett,  509  B  Street, 
N.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Chilton,  Mrs.  Horace,  Tyler,  Tex. 

Christie,  Mrs.  Louise  Long,  Springfield,  Ohio. 

Clark,  Mrs.  David,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Clark,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  98  Congress  Street,  Newark,  X.  J. 

Clendaniel,  Mrs.  George  S.,  600  Pennsylvania  Avenue,  S.  E., 
Washington,  D.  C. 

Cohen,  Mrs.  M.  E.,  1347  T  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Colby,  Mrs.  Clara  B.,  Beatrice,  Neb. 

Conant,  Mrs.  E.  H.,  Camden,  N.  Y. 

Conklin,  Mrs.  Mabel  L.,  Ann  Arbor,  Mich. 

Conway,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Cornell,  'Mrs.  I.  Tucker,  Salem,  Mass. 

Craigie,  Mrs.  C.  0.  H.,  Public  Library  Association,  Brooklyn, 
K  Y. 

Cross,  Mrs.  Rosetta  0.,  Bellevue,  Ky. 

Cummings,  Mrs.  E.  J.,  424  West  Biddle  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Dammann,  Mrs.  J.  F.,  18  East  Franklin  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Daugherty,  Miss  Laura  Gbldy,  Baltimore,  Md. 


APPENDIX.  261 

Davidson,  Mrs.  Frederick  H.,  2102  Eutaw  Place,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Davidson,  Mrs.  G.  M.,  Seattle,  Wash. 

Davis,  Mrs.  A.  H.,  care  of  Mrs.  Hotchkiss,  11  Kane  Street,  Brad- 
ford, Pa. 

Dingman,  Mrs.  F.  E.,  600  Penn  Avenue,  S.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Dinwoodie,  Mrs.  J.  S.,  1409  Hull  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Douglass,  Mrs.  Charles  K.,  1936  Fourth  Street,  N.  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Downs,  Mrs.  Norton,  215  West  Walnut  Lane,  Germantown,  Pa. 

Drake,  Mrs.  Helen  M.,  Sacramento,  Cal. 

Duffield,  Mrs.  E.  A.,  Lincoln  Memorial  Women's  Christian  Tem- 
perance Union,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Eberhardt,  Mrs.  Ermonce  V.,  97  Congress  Street,  Newark,  N.  J. 

Eggleston,  Miss,  45  Wadsworth  Street,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Ellis,  Mrs.  W.  S.,  2125  Walnut  Street,  Philadelphia  Pa. 

Farmer,  Miss  Sarah  J.,  Eliot,  Me. 

Fernald,  Mrs.  J.  C.,  West  New  Brighton,  Staten  Island,  N.  Y. 

Findley,  Mrs.  Mary  F.,  Akron,  Ohio. 

Finston,  Mrs.  M.  P.,  Virginia. 

Fitch,  Miss  Virginia,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Fitch,  Mrs.  G.  K.,  Girls'  Training  Home,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

Ford,  Mrs.  F.  F.,  Omaha  Woman's  Club,  Omaha,  Neb. 

Fout,  Mrs.  J.  E.,  1713  North  Capitol  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Fowler,  Mrs.  J.  W.,  Jamestown,  N.  Y. 

Frame,  Miss  Katharine  D.,  Flushing,  L.  I. 

Frye,  Mrs.  William  P.,  Lewiston,  Me. 

Garvin,  Mrs.  M.  J.,  Training  School  for  Nurses,  New  York  city. 

Gibson,  Mrs.,  215  South  Broad  Street,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

Gilbert,  Mrs.  James  E.,  care  of  Eev.  J.  E.  Gilbert,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Gilmore,  Mrs.  Matthew,  Richmond,  Va. 

Goodale,  Mrs.  F.  A.,  New  Century  Club,  Utica,  N.  Y. 

Gray,  Mrs.  Arthur  S.,  corner  Sixth  and  Trumbull  Streets,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Gulick,  Mrs.  Luther,  Springfield,  Mass. 

Guyton,  Mrs.  Emma  Platt,  Hillsdale  College,  Grand  Eapids, 
Mich. 

Habicht,  Miss  E.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 
18 


262  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Haggenbotham,  Miss  May,  3216  Chestnut  Street,  West  Phila- 
delphia,  Pa. 

Hallowell,  Mrs.  Lydia  S.,  1300  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Hammer,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  Forty-third  and  Chestnut  Streets,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Hanna,  Mrs.  Louise  W.,  Peoria,  111. 

Hansford,  Mrs.  Smith,  College  Street  Club,  Harrodsburg,  Ky. 

Hapgood,  Mrs.  Melvin  H.,  142  Woodland  Street,  Hartford,  Conn. 

Harper,  Mrs.  F.  E.  W.,  756  South  Twenty-first  Street,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Haslup,  Mrs.  Mary,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 

Hathaway,  Mrs.  H.  R.,  Brighton,  Mass. 

Hawkins,  Mrs.  L.  E.,  care  of  Women's  Christian  Temperance 
Union,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Heatherington,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Heiges,  Mrs.  George  W.,  St.  John's  Parish  House,  York,  Pa. 

Hendrickson,  Hannah  H.,  Friends'  Society,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Hensley,  Mrs.  S.  N.  A.,  8  West  102d  Street,  New  York  city. 

Hershey,  Mrs.,  Mount  Washington,  Md. 

Hertzler,  Mrs.  M.  A.,  Elizabethtown,  Pa. 

Hicks,  Mrs.  G.  H.,  2222  Fifteenth  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Higgins,  Mrs.  John  J.,  Rockville,  Md. 

Hill,  Mrs.  Thomas,  18  East  Franklin  Street,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Hilton,  Mrs.  Jessie  Brown,  Evanston,  111. 

Hoge,  Mrs.  Howard,  Virginia. 

Holme,  Mrs.  Pauline  W.,  1140  Druid  Hill  Avenue,  Baltimore, 
Md. 

Holtzman,  Mrs.  William  F.,  1214  Twelfth  Street,  N.  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Hughes,  Miss  Emma,  Hutchinson,  Kan. 

Hurley,  Miss  Minnie  C.,  190  Rutledge  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Hyde,  Mrs.  H.  P.,  Waltham,  Mass. 

Immen,  Mrs.  Loraine,  35  North  Lafayette  Street,  Grand  Rapids, 
Mich. 

Ing,  Mrs.  William,  614  North  Fulton  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Jackson,  Mrs.  Mary  P.,  Ashton,  Md. 

James,  Elizabeth,  Fifteenth  and  Race  Streets,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

James,  Mrs.  Cornelia  E.,  296  Rutger  Street,  Utica,  N.  Y. 


APPENDIX.  263 

Jaynes,  Mrs.  H.  S.,  1621  Emmett  Street,  Omaha,  Neb. 

Jennings,  Dr.  Ella,  208  West  Forty-third  Street,  New  York  city. 

Jones,  Mrs.  E.  N.,  Virginia. 

Jump,  Mrs.  C.  J.  A.,  138  Hudson  Ave.,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

June,  Mrs.  C.  S.,  916  College  Avenue,  Burlington,  Iowa. 

Keener,  Mrs.  A.  M.  G.,  Selins  Grove,  Pa. 

Kemp,  M.  D.,  Mrs.  Agnes,  603  North  Second  Street,  Harris- 
burg,  Pa. 

Kennedy,  Mrs.  C.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Kent,  Mrs.  Samuel,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Kent,  Mrs.  Wimodaughsis,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Keyser,  Mrs.  W.  W.,  Woman's  Club,  Omaha,  Neb. 

Kincaid,  Mrs.  Mary  W.,  314  Montgomery  Street,  San  Francisco, 
Cal. 

King,  Mrs.  William,  480  Courtland  Avenue,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Kirby,  M.  D.,  Mrs.  Mary  H.,  1736  North  Nineteenth  Street, 
Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Kirk,  Mrs.  David,  220  Darrah  Street,  Pittsburg,  Pa. 
'  Kohut,  Mrs.  Eebekah,  709  Madison  Avenue,  New  York  city. 

La  Fetra,  Mrs.  Sarah  D.,  Eleventh  and  G  Streets,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Lake,  Mrs.  James,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 

Lamb,  Mrs.  George  M.,  1109  Madison  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Langland,  Mrs.  H.  M.,  Marshall,  Lyon  County,  Minn. 

Lathim,  Miss  Sarah  A.,  Springfield,  Mo. 

Laws,  Miss  Annie,  Mothers'  Kindergarten  Association,  Cincin- 
nati, Ohio. 

Lawson,  Mrs.  Jesse,  University  Park,  Mo. 

Leeds,  Mrs.  Deborah,  Seal  post  office,  Chester  County,  Pa. 

Lewis,  Mrs.  N.  W.,  North  Bingham,  Pa. 

Longstreth,  Mrs.  Edward,  1301  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Longstreth,  Mrs.  F.  M.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Loomis,  Mrs.  Laura,  Eedfield,  S.  Dakota. 

Lothrop,  Mrs.  Daniel,  Wayside,  Concord,  Mass. 

Lyons,  Mrs.  James,  415  East  Franklin  Street,  Eichmond,  Va. 

Mackenzie,  Miss  Constance,  1301  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

McClary,  Mrs.  Joseph  A.,  Eahway,  N.  J. 

McClelland,  Mrs.  Sophia,  Medico-Legal  Society,  New  York  city. 


264  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

McCoy,  Mrs.  Jennie,  Virginia. 

McCue,  Mrs.,  215  South  Broad  Street,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 

McCullough,  Mrs.  Laura  V.,  419  Tenth  Street,  N.  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

McEwen,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

McLean,  Mrs.  Jane,  National  Press  Association,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

McMullen,  Mrs.  Kate  Way,  Woman's  Club,  Evanston,  111. 

Mann,  Mrs.  C.  H.,  Woman's  Club,  Orange,  1ST.  J. 

Marshall,  Mrs.  Leander,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Martin,  Mrs.  E.  D.,  Room  280,  Washington  Building,  1  Broad- 
way, New  York  city. 

Marye,  Mrs.  Robert,  Roxobel,  Mount  Washington,  Md. 

Mather,  Mrs.  M.  H.  A.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Matthews,  Mrs.  Charles  T.,  1925  Park  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Matthews,  Mrs.  E.  B.,  Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Mead,  Mrs.  J.  Calvin,  73  Bridge  Street,  Oswego,  N.  Y. 

Mears,  Mrs.  D.  0.,  53  Ten  Broeck  Street,  Albany,  N.  Y. 

Merriwether,  Mrs.  M.  L.,  Woman's  Committee  of  the  Young 
Men's  Christian  Association,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Miller,  Mrs.  Clara  Booth,  Front  and  Olive  Streets,  Media,  Pa. 

Miller,  Mrs.  Sarah  J.,  Sandy  Springs,  Md. 

Mitchell,  Mrs.  Norwood,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Moon,  Caroline,  Friends'  Society,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Moore,  Miss  Rosa,  219  Chestnut  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Moore,  Mrs.  Willis  Lord,  510  First  Avenue  East,  Hutchinson, 
Kan. 

Murray,  Mrs.  Anna  J.,  934  S  Street,  N.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Needles,  Miss  Emma  S.,  1809  North  Charles  Street,  Balti- 
more, Md. 

Newcomb,  Mrs.  W.  W.,  Progressive  Educational  Club,  Lans- 
downe, Pa. 

North,  Mrs.  Mary  M.,  National  Press  Association,  Washington, 
B.C. 

Noyes,  Mrs.  Charles  H.,  Warren,  Pa. 

Orr,  Mrs.  Frank  B.,  4450  Ellis  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 

Osgood,  Mrs.  Etta  H.,  Portland,  Me. 


APPENDIX.  2G5 

Otey,  Mrs.  Peter,  415  East  Franklin  Street,  Kichmond,  Va. 

Parmalee,  Mrs.  Erskine  M.,  Dansville,  N.  Y. 

Parrarr,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Parsons,  Mrs.,  care  of  Miss  Litchfield,  203  Clinton  Street,  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

Pearsall,  Miss  Antoinette,  1332  Pacific  Street,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Peckham,  Miss  Katharine  F.,  Worcester,  Mass. 

Peirce,  Mrs.  Henry  D.,  Indianapolis,  Ind. 

Perkins,  Mrs.  S.  M.,  121  Adelbert  Street,  Cleveland,  Ohio. 

Pickler,  Mrs.  A.  M.  A.,  Faulkton,  S.  Dakota. 

Pierce,  Mrs.  C.  L.,  3316  Powellton  Avenue,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Pierce,  Susan  W.,  Friends'  Society,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Platt,  Mrs.  M.  B.,  1009  North  Capitol  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Pomeroy,  Mrs.  Byron,  Box  224,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Powell,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Pritchett,  Miss  E.  A.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Putnam,  Mrs.  Alice  H.,  Kindergarten  Club,  Chicago,  111. 

Putnam,  Mrs.  Joseph  R.,  15  Washington  Street,  Chicago,  111. 

Ehodes,  Mrs.  E.  G.,  Mount  Pleasant,  Iowa. 

Eider,  Mrs.  Eunice,  National  Press  Association,  Washington, 
D.  C. 

Ridgely,  Miss  Eliza,  825  Park  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Ridgely,  Miss  Henrietta  S.,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Roach,  Mrs.  Clara  L.,  Home  Missionary  Society,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Roberts,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Robinson,  Mrs.  Alice  C.,  1208  Madison  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Robinson,  Mrs.  Josie  G.,  801  Madison  Street,  Alexandria,  Va. 

Rousier,  Mrs.  Mary  A.,  128  Washington  Avenue,  Woodside, 
Newark,  N.  J. 

Russell,  Mrs.  J.  L.,  Darby,  Delaware  County,  Pa. 

Saulsbury,  Miss  Emma  G.,  Ridgely,  Md. 

Sawyer,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  Free  Kindergarten,  Wayne,  Ind. 

Schoonmaker,  Mrs.  Jessie  B.,  Bradford,  Pa. 

Sears,  Mrs.  R.  V.,  Bucyrus,  Ohio. 

Shapleigh,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  Allston,  Mass. 

Shattuck,  Mrs.  L.  Brace,  4450  Ellis  Avenue,  Chicago,  111. 

Shaw,  Mrs.  Charles  P.,  Charlottesville,  Va. 

Shaw,  Mrs.  Robert,  98  South  Eliot  Place,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


266  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Shelton,  Mrs.  Emma  F.,  1918  Fifteenth  Street,  Washington, 

D.  C. 

Shober,  Jr.,  Mrs.  L.,  1422  Catharine  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Silsbee,  Mrs.  A.  M.,  43  Main  Street,  Watertown,  Mass. 
Simpson,  Mrs.  J.  H.,  National  Press  Association,  Washington, 

D.  C. 
Sloan,  Mrs.  Anna  T.,  care  of  Mrs.  Hotchkiss,  11  Kane  Street, 

Bradford,  Pa. 
Smith,  Miss  Anna  Tolman,  1335  Twelfth  Street,  Washington, 

D.  C. 

Smith,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Burton,  Atlanta,  Ga. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Clinton,  care  of  Women's  Christian  Temperance 

Union,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Jennie,  Hyattsville,  Md. 
Smith,  Mrs.  Sarah  W.,  Medina,  Ohio. 
Smyth,  Mrs.  F.  E.,  520  T  Street,  N.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Smythe,  Miss  Alice  P.,  Wilmington,  Del. 
Stanwood,  Mrs.  Louise  Brockway,  Evanston,  111. 
Stephens,   Mrs.   Benjamin,   1284  Flatbush   Avenue,   Brooklyn, 

N.  Y. 

Sterling,  Mrs.  Anna  Biddle,  1846  Van  Pelt  Street,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Stewart,  Mrs.  Agnes,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 
Stewart,  Mrs.  John  Wood,  Orange  Eoad,  Montclair,  N.  J. 
Stimson,  Mrs.  H.  A.,  159  West  Eighty-sixth  Street,  New  York 

city,  N.  Y. 

Stone,  Mrs.  Lucinda,  Kalamazoo,  Mich. 
Stute,  Mrs.,  care  of  Sans  Souci  Club,  Marion,  Ind. 
Swayne,  Mrs.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Sweezy,  Miss  J.,  129  East  Tenth  Street,  New  York  city. 
Tapp,  Miss  M.,  Jacksonville,  111. 

Taylor,  Miss  Frances,  Plymouth,  Sheboygan  County,  Wis. 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Eliza  Jane,  Baltimore,  Md. 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Emily  P.,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 
Taylor,  Mrs.  Eonald,  316  Clifton  Place,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 
Tealdo,  Miss  L.,  129  East  Tenth  Street,  New  York  city. 
Temple,  Miss  Mary  B.,  Knoxville,  Tenn. 


APPENDIX.  267 

Terrell,  Mrs.  Mary  Church,  1936  Fourth  Street,  K  W.,  Wash- 
ington, D.  C. 

Thacher,  Mrs.  Ella  M.,  Florence,  Burlington  County,  N.  J. 

Theme,  Miss  Maria  C.,  Friends'  Society,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Thomas,  Mrs.  Mary  B.,  1208  Madison  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Turnbull,  Mrs.  Lawrence,  18  East  Franklin  Street,  Baltimore, 
Md. 

Turner,  Mrs.  Paul,  Mount  Washington,  Md. 

Tuttle,  Mrs.  Kate  A.,  Charlottesville,  Va. 

Tyler,  Mrs.  W.  Graham,  4420  Spruce  Street,  Philadelphia,  Pa. 

Vandergrift,  Mrs.  Lewis  C.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Walker,  Miss  Lucy  C.,  1208  Madison  Avenue,  Baltimore,  Md. 

Watling,  Mrs.  John  A.,  Ypsilanti,  Mich. 

Weed,  Mrs.  S.  B.,  542  Putnam  Avenue,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

Weightman,  Miss  L.  S.,  1918  Fifteenth  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Wells,  Mrs.  Helen  Eaymond,  Akron,  Ohio. 

Werth,  Mrs.  James  E.,  313  East  Main  Street,  Eichmond,  Va. 

West,  Mrs.  Max,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Westcott,  Mrs.  S.  M.,  918  Twenty-third  Street,  Washington,  D.  C. 

White,  Mrs.  John  J.,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Whitney,  Mrs.  Mary  T.,  381  Dorchester  Street,  Boston,  Mass. 

Wilbur,  Miss,  1726  N"  Street,  K.  W.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Wilkinson,  Mrs.  L.  B.,  214  First  Street,  S.  E.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Willetts,  Miss  Mary,  Sea  Girt,  N.  J. 

Williams,  Mrs.  Theresa  A.,  The  Temple,  Chicago,  111. 

Willson,  Mrs.  John  E.,  Eockville,  Md. 

Wilson,  Mrs.  Charles  S.,  Wilmington,  Del. 

Wood,  Mrs.  Alfred,  care  of  Young  Women's  Christian  Temper- 
ance Union,  Washington,  D.  C. 

.Wood,  Mrs.  C.  H.  W.,  9  Bainbridge  Street,  Eoxbury,  Mass. 

Woods,  Mrs.  W.  H.,  care  of  1438  Eichfield  Street,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Wright,  Miss  E.  D.,  Froebel  Institute,  Lansdowne,  Pa. 

Wright,  Mrs.  Phebe  C.,  West  143d  Street  and  Amsterdam 
Avenue,  New  York  city. 


268  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

ADDENDA. 

(Names  inadvertently  omitted  in  the  first  edition.) 

Allen,  Dr.  Mary  Wood,  Superintendent  Purity  Department, 
National  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

Burt,  Mrs.  Mary  T.,  President  New  York  State  Women's  Chris- 
tian Temperance  Union. 

Claude,  Mrs.  Herbert  D.,  Chevy  Chase,  Md.   • 

Graham,  Mrs.  John  T.,  Mount  Washington,  Md. 

Hilton,  Mrs.  Jessie  Brown,  Secretary  Mothers'  Meetings  and 
Eepresentative  Purity  Department,  Women's  Christian 
Temperance  Union,  Evanston,  111. 

Stanwood,  Mrs.  Louise  B.,  Evanston  Woman's  Club,  Evanston, 
111. 


GKEETINGS. 

Alumna?  Club,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Chester  Woman's  Suffrage  League,  Chester,  Pa. 

Chrisfield,  Charlotte  L.,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Conway,  Miss  Clara,   Chairman  of  the  Woman's  Department 

Tennessee  Centennial  and  International  Exposition. 
Cranford  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  Cranford,  N.  J. 
Detroit  Woman's  Club,  Detroit,  Mich. 
Gambee,  Mrs.  Louise  H.,  Chattanooga,  Tenn. 
Georgia  Federation  of  Women's  Clubs,  Atlanta,  Ga. 
Herbert,  Mrs.  Katharine  W.  D.,  New  York  city. 
Ladies'  Aid  Society,  Presbyterian  Church,  Cranford,  N.  J. 
Ladies'  History  Club,  Sioux  Falls,  South  Dakota. 
Martha  Ball  Washington  Monument  Association. 
Mary  F.  Thomas  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  Kich- 

mond,  Ind. 

Masters,  Mrs.  Hardin  W.,  Lewiston,  111. 
Mothers'  and  Teachers'  Association,  Arlington,  Hudson  County, 

N.  J. 

Mothers'  Society,  Afton,  Iowa. 
Newson,  H.  D.,  New  York  city. 
Norwegian  Woman's  Society,  Christiania,  Norway. 


APPENDIX.  269 

Oswego  Mothers'  Club,  Oswego,  N.  Y. 

Philadelphia  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  Philadel- 
phia, Pa. 

Eiverside  Culture  Club,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 

Severance,  Mrs.  Caroline  Seymour,  Los  Angeles,  Cal. 

Sibley  Mothers'  Club,  St.  Paul,  Minn. 

Singer,  Mrs.  Mary  Shepherd,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 

South  End  Mothers'  Club,  Grand  Rapids,  Mich. 

State  Council  of  Mothers,  South  Dakota. 

Star  of  Bethlehem  Church,  Sing  Sing,  N.  Y. 

St.  Louis  Central  Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union,  St. 
Louis,  Mo. 

Watts,  Mrs.  Grace  G.,  New  Orleans,  La. 

Wednesday  Morning  Club,  Cranford,  1ST.  J. 

Willard,  Miss  Frances  E.,  President  of  the  World's  and  National 
Women's  Christian  Temperance  Union. 

Woman's  Club,  Louisville,  Ky. 

Woman's  Eepublican  League,  Brooklyn,  N.  Y. 


COMMITTEE   ON  EESOLUTIONS. 

Mrs.  ELLEN  A.  RICHARDSON,  Boston,  Chairman. 

Mrs.  ELLEN  M.  HENROTIN,  Chicago.  Mrs.  BURTON  SMITH,  Atlanta. 

Countess  CORA  Di  BRAZZA,  New  York.  Mrs.  JOHN  T.  GRAHAM.  Mt.  Wash- 
Mrs.  H.  M.  COOPER,  Little  Rock,  Ark.  ington,  Maryland. 

Miss  JANET  RICHARDS,  Washington,  D.  C.  Mrs.  EDWIN  ATWELL,  New  York. 

Mrs.  AGNES  KEMP,  Harrisburg,  Pa.  Mrs.  H.  A.  STIMSON,  New  York. 
RACHEL  FOSTER  AVERY,  Philadelphia. 


EESOLUTIONS  AS  ADOPTED  BY 

THE  NATIONAL  CONGEESS   OF  MOTHEES 

AND   DELEGATES. 

Whereas,  This  is  the  first  great  National  Congress  of  Women 
ever  gathered  about  the  single  idea  of  maternity  and  the  improve- 
ment of  the  relation  of  mother  and  child;  and 


270  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Whereas,  We  desire  that  the  influence  of  this  meeting  shall 
be  as  far-reaching  as  possible;  therefore 

Resolved,  That  we  indorse  the  work  of  the  Universal  Peace 
Union,  and,  second,  the  suggestion  made  to  the  mothers,  in- 
structors, and  citizens  of  America  that  lessons  of  peace  must 
first  be  taught  by  harmony  at  the  hearth,  and  contained  in  the 
following 

SEVEN    RULES   OF    HARMONY. 

1.  I  hereby  promise  to  make  the  sacred  spirit  of  peace  a 
living  power  in  my  life,  and  to  contribute  all  the  time,  thought, 
and  money  that  I  can  to  its  diffusion. 

2.  I  promise  never  to  listen  without  a  protest  to  insinua- 
tions, vituperations,  or  unjust  accusations  against  the  members 
of  my  family  or  against  my  fellow-citizens. 

3.  I  promise  to  seek  to  understand  the  spirit  of  the  national 
laws,  to  obey  those  that  exist,  and  to  interest  myself  fervently 
in  the  modification  of  all  those  which  tyrannize  any  class  of 
fellow-citizens. 

4.  I  promise  to  dedicate  my  thought  and  influence  to  the 
development  of  the  national  and  patriotic  spirit,  and  not  to 
criticise  without  purpose  the  administration  of  the  family  or  of 
the  nation. 

5.  I  promise  to  treat  all  birds  and  beasts  and  all  existencies 
of  the  animal  and  vegetable  worlds  with  justness  and  gentle- 
ness, and  not  to  destroy,  save  for  self-preservation  and  for  the 
protection  of  the  weak.     Instead,  my  object  shall  be  to  plant, 
to  nourish,  and  to  propagate  all  that  will  lead  to  the  moral  and 
physical  amelioration  of  my  family,  my  home,  and  my  nation. 

6.  I  promise  to  teach  to  my  children  and  my  dependents 
everything  with  regard  to  justice  and  peace  which  I  shall  learn, 
and  to  seek  to  develop  within  them  the  sentiments  to  which  I 
am  hereby  dedicating  myself.     . 

7.  I  promise  to  seek  each  day  to  utter  some  word  or  to  per- 
form some  action  which  may  promote  the  cause  of  peace,  whether 
at  home  or  abroad. 

Resolved,  That  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  heartily 
approves  the  founding  of  a  National  Training  School  for  Women, 
that  the  women  of  America  may  be  taught  the  methods  of  mak- 


APPENDIX.  271 

ing  hygienic  homes,  and  of  becoming  intelligent  mothers;  in  a 
word,  that  they  may  be  taught  the  laws  of  health  and  heredity. 

Resolved,  That  we  use  our  influence  to  encourage  legisla- 
tion in  our  various  States  and  Territories  to  secure  kindergarten 
departments  in  our  public  schools.  Furthermore,  it  is  recom- 
mended that  every  woman's  organization  in  every  State  in  our 
Union  be  invited  to  co-operate  in  the  establishment  of  adequate 
training  schools  for  kindergartners. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  endeavor  to  exclude  from  our  homes 
those  papers  which  do  not  educate  or  inspire  to  noble  thought 
and  deed,  and  that  our  influence  shall  be  used  to  so  cultivate 
the  public  taste  that  it  will  exact  from  the  press  and  artists  that 
which  educates  and  refines.  We  protest  against  all  pictures  and 
displays  which  tend  to  degrade  men  and  women  or  to  corrupt 
or  deprave  the  minds  of  the  young,  and  all  advertisements  which 
offend  decency. 

Resolved,  That  we  shall  try  to  influence  both  Houses  of  Con- 
gress to  raise  the  age  of  protection  for  girls  to  eighteen  years, 
at  least,  in  the  District  of  Columbia  and  the  Territories-. 

Resolved,  That,  as  we  have  a  National  Executive  Board,  we 
ask  our  officers  to  continue  national  headquarters  at  Washing- 
ton, D.  C.,  from  which  a  Press  Committee  shall  send  out  each 
month,  to  all  newspapers  agreeing  to  publish  them  regularly, 
articles  germane  to  our  objects  and  information  relative  to  the 
progress  of  our  work;  that  circulars  of  information  and  leaflets, 
setting  forth  the  best  methods  of  work,  be  prepared  and  furnished 
at  cost  to  those  wishing  to  purchase  them;  and  that,  while  we 
deem  State  organization  at  present  inadvisable,  we  recommend 
that  the  members  of  this  Congress  carry  home  to  the  respective 
organizations  which  sent  them  as  full  reports  as  possible  of  its 
sessions,  and  strive  to  make  it  the  inspiration  toward  the  forma- 
tion of  Mothers'  or  Home  Sections  in  the  local  organizations 
already  formed,  and  of  Mothers'  Clubs  outside  of  already  exist- 
ing associations. 

Resolved,  That  the  Committee  on  Resolutions  do  hereby 
recommend: 

1.  That  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  hold  annual 
meetings. 


272  NATIONAL  CONGRESS   OF  MOTHERS. 

2.  That,  in  order  to  promote  permanent  organization  and 
preserve  the  national  character  of  this  movement,  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers  meet  every  oilier  year  at  the  nation's  capi- 
tal, Washington,  D.  C.,  the  alternate  or  intermediate  Congresses 
to  be  held  at  such  places  as  may  be  hereafter  designated. 

3.  That  the  next  National  Congress  of  Mothers  be  held  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  in  the  year  1898,  the  date  of  meeting  to  be 
decided  upon  by  the  National  Executive  Board. 

Resolved,  That  the  Mothers'  Congress  has  made  manifest  the 
earnest  desire  and  determination  of  the  women  of  our  land  and 
elsewhere  to  give  the  children  committed  to  their  care  the  ad- 
vantages of  pure  thought  and  high  endeavor;  therefore,  believ- 
ing that  law  is  love  and  that  love  is  the  highest  expression  of 
God,  and  hence  the  ruling  power  of  the  universe,  and  that  its 
perversion  and  prostitution  is  the  sole  source  of  evil,  we  exhort 
all  mothers  to  a  closer  walk  with  our  Father  and  Mother  God, 
by  whose  nurture  and  admonition  our  children  must  be  brought 
up  if  life  is  ever  to  be  worth  living. 

Resolved,  That  the  members  and  delegates  of  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers  express  their  cordial  appreciation  of  the 
hospitality  which  has  been  extended  to  the  Congress  by  the  resi- 
dents of  the  city  of  Washington,  and  return  their  sincere  thanks 
for  the  courtesies  extended. 

The  National  Congress  of  Mothers  especially  appreciates  the 
reception  tendered  it  by  Mrs.  Grover  Cleveland,  who  stands 
before  the  country  as  a  gracious  and  beautiful  ideal  of  mother- 
hood. We  feel  that  in  her  life  she  has  exemplified  the  princi- 
ples for  which  this  Congress  stands. 

In  the  lady  to  whose  unbounded  hospitality  and  far-sighted 
wisdom  is  due  the  abundant  success  of  the  First  National  Con- 
gress of  Mothers  we  recognize  not  only  the  home  mother,  but 
the  world  mother. 

To  the  presiding  officer,  Mrs.  Birney,  whose  devotion  for 
all  mothers  brought  her  across  the  continent  to  serve  their  cause; 
to  the  Vice-Presidents;  to  the  Secretary,  Miss  Butler,  who  has  so 
faithfully  performed  the  many  duties  which  devolved  upon 
her  in  the  absence  of  the  President;  to  the  speakers,  who  have 
contributed  from  the  wisdom  of  all  science,  research,  philosophy, 


APPENDIX.  273 

and  experience;  to  the  press,  which  has  so  fully  disseminated 
the  deliberations  of  this  body;  to  the  associations  Avhich  have 
sent  delegates,  and  have  thus  multiplied  the  influence  and  ef- 
ficiency of  the  National  Congress;  and  to  the  great  audiences 
which,  notwithstanding  the  disadvantages  entailed  upon  all  by 
the  unexpected  numbers  in  attendance,  have  preserved  the  har- 
mony of  spirit  and  the  graceful  courtesy  which  have  lightened 
and  brightened  the  labors  of  all — to  each  and  all  of  these  the 
Committee  on  Eesolutions  beg  to  express  for  the  Congress  their 
congratulations  that  the  First  National  Congress  of  Mothers 
adjourn  to  take  into  our  homes  the  spirit  of  co-operation  in  the 
cause  suggested  in  the  call  for  the  Congress. 


DECLAEATION  OF  PEINCIPLES   OF  THE 
NATIONAL  CONGEESS  OF  MOTHEES. 

First.  The  name  of  this  Association  shall  be  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers. 

Second.  The  objects  of  this  Association  shall  be  to  promote 
conference  on  the  part  of  parents  concerning  questions  most  vital 
to  the  welfare  of  their  children,  the  manifest  interests  of  the 
home,  and  in  general  the  elevation  of  mankind. 

Therefore  annual  meetings  will  be  held,  at  which  the  best 
thoughts  may  be  presented  upon  all  subjects  bearing  upon  the 
broader  and  higher  physical  and  mental,  as  well  as  on  the  spirit- 
ual, training  of  the  young.  This  Association  purposes  to  incul- 
cate love  of  humanity  and  love  of  country,  to  encourage  closer 
relations  between  home  influences  and  school  life,  to  promote 
kindergarten  principles  from  cradle  to  college,  to  seek  to  create 
in  all  those  characteristics  which  shall  elevate  and  ennoble — 
in  short,  to  work  for  life  development  from  the  standards  of 
knowledge,  truth,  peace,  and  harmony,  j 

Third.  To  the  annual  meetings  shall  be  invited  all  persons 
interested  in  the  objects  and  purposes  of  this  Association,  and 
especially  will  all  parents'  clubs  and  organizations  having  de- 


27-i  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

partments  devoted  to  the  study  of  the  family  interests  be  invited 
to  send  delegates,  to  the  end  that  the  thought  of  the  nation  may 
be  concentrated  in  this  important  national  movement,  which  will 
make  for  enlightened  parenthood  and  for  a  race  of  full  birth- 
rights. 

Fourth.  The  officers  of  this  Association  shall  consist  of  a 
President,  four  Vice-Presidents,  a  Secretary,  and  a  Treasurer, 
who  shall  also  be  the  Executive  Committee,  and  who,  with  the 
Chairmen  of  the  Committees  on  Arrangements,  Entertainment, 
Literature,  Eesolutions,  and  Transportation,  shall  constitute  the 
Board  of  Managers. 

Fifth.  The  Executive  Committee  shall  consist  of  the  officers 
as  above  stated;  the  Eesolutions  Committee  shall  consist  of  seven. 
All  other  committees  shall  consist  of  five  persons.  The  officers 
shall  serve  for  a  term  of  three  years,  and  the  chairmen  of  the 
committees  for  one  year.  Their  successors  shall  be  elected  by 
the  Board  of  Managers  at  the  annual  meeting.  Members  of  the 
committees  shall  be  elected  annually  by  the  Board,  but  only  the 
chairmen  shall  be  members  of  such  Board. 

Sixth.  The  National  Congress  of  Mothers  shall  hold  annual 
meetings,  every  alternate  meeting  to  be  held  in  Washington, 
the  place  for  holding  the  intermediate  meetings  to  be  selected 
and  determined  ,by  the  Executive  Committee.  The  Board  of 
Managers  shall  hold  monthly  meetings  in  the  city  of  Washing- 
ton for  the  conduct  of  the  business  pertaining  to  the  National 
Congress  of  Mothers.  Special  meetings  may  be  held  at  the  call 
of  the  President  or  at  the  written  request  of  five  or  more  mem- 
bers. 

Seventh.  The  Board  of  Managers  shall  have  power  to  enact 
by-laws  for  the  transaction  of  business. 

Eighth.  Since  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  is  the  me- 
dium of  communication  for  the  exchange  of  thought  for  the 
enlightenment  of  parenthood  and  the  betterment  of  child  life, 
the  Board  invites  co-operation  of  old  workers  and  new  students, 
that  their  various  interests  may  be  harmonized  and  an  alliance 
formed  which  will  be  an  aid  and  inspiration  to  all. 

A  leaflet  will  be  issued  by  the  Board  in  the  autumn  further 
defining  the  plans  and  character  of  the  work,  especially  in  regard 


APPENDIX.  275 

to  the  status  of  delegates,  which  will  be  sent  to  all  ordering  the 
report  of  the  first  Congress;  also  upon  application  at  the  office, 
Washington  Loan  and  Trust  Building. 
April,  1897. 


LIST  OF  BOOKS. 

In  the  Addenda  will  be  found  the  information  promised  in  leaflet  form ; 
also  an  explanation  of  the  methods  by  which  it  is  hoped  the  heavy  expenses 
of  this  rapidly  growing  work  may  be  met. 

In  arranging  this  list  of  books  for  mothers'  clubs  or  home 
reading,  there  is  no  attempt  to  make  it  more  than  a  suggestive 
list. 

The  realm  of  books  is  so  great  that  one  should  enter  it  cau- 
tiously and  seek  only  the  best.  Believing  that  a  few  books  well 
chosen,  carefully  read,  studied,  and  discussed  are  of  more  real 
value  than  a  great  library  superficially  treated,  the  following 
list  is  given  and  for  convenience  is  subdivided  into  two  sections: 

1.  Books  practical  and  helpful  to  parents,  pertaining  spe- 
cially to  child  culture. 

A  Great  Mother.     Willard.    ^8»/,^tf 

A  Handbook  for  Mothers.     Mary  Louisa  Butler. '  ~3&z  cents. 

Apperception.     Lange.     $1. 

As  a  Matter  of  Course.     Call.     $1. 

A  Study  of  Child  Nature.     Harrison.     $1. 

Beckonings  from  Little  Hands.     Du  Bois.     $1.25. 

Bits  of  Talk  about  Home  Matters.     H.  H.     $1. 

Child  Life  in  Art.     Hurll.     $2. 

Childhood  in  Literature  and  Art.     Scudder.     $1.25. 

Children's  Eights.     Wiggin.     $1. 

Children,  their  Models  and  Critics.     Aldrich.     75  cents. 

Children's  Ways.     Sully.     $1.25. 

Comenius's  School  of  Infancy.     W.  S.  Monroe.      $1. 

Early  Training  of  Children.     Malleson.     50  cents. 

Education.     Spencer.     $1.25. 

Education  of  Man.     Froebel.     $1.50. 


276  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Essays  on  Books  and  Culture.     Mabie.     $1.25. 

Facts  and  Fiction.     Gardener.     50  cents. 

Froebel  and  Education  through  Self-activity.     Bowen.     $1. 

Froebel's    Mother    Play,    Mottoes,    and    Commentaries.     Blow. 

$1.50. 
Gentle  Measures  in  the  Management  of  the  Young.     Abbott. 

$1.75. 

Hints  on  Child  Training.     Trumbull.     $1. 
Home  Occupations.     Beebe.     75  cents. 
Infant  Mind.     Preyer.     $1. 

Kindergarten  and  Child  Culture  Papers.     Barnard.     $3.50. 
Law  of  Childhood.     Hailman. 
Lectures  to  Kindergartners.     Peabody.     $1. 
Leonard  and  Gertrude.     Pestalozzi.     90  cents. 
Mental  Affections  of  Childhood  and  Youth.    J.  Langdon  Smith. 

$4.50. 

Methods  of  Mind  Training.     Aiken.     $1. 
Myths  and  Mother  Plays.     Wiltse.     $1. 
Moral  Instruction  of  Children.     Adler.     $1.50. 
Nursery  Ethics.    Florence  Hull  Winterburn.     $1. 
Picture  Work  for  Mothers  and  Teachers.     Hervey.     30  cents. 
Power  through  Eepose.     Call.     $1. 
Prisoners  of  Poverty.     Campbell.     $1. 
Eeminiscences  of  Froebel.     Billow.     $1.50. 
Kepublic  of  Childhood.     Wiggin-Sinith.     $1  each. 
Vol.  I.  Froebel  Gifts. 
Vol.  II.  Froebel  Occupations. 
Vol.  III.  Kindergarten  Principles  and  Practice. 
Senses  and  Will.     Preyer.     $1.50. 

Songs  and  Music  of  Froebel's  Mother  Play.     Blow.     $1.50. 
Studies  of  Childhood.     Sully.     $2.50. 
Studies  in  Education.     Dr.  Earl  Barnes.     $1. 
Symbolic  Education.     Blow.     $1.50. 
The  Children  of  the  Poor.     Eiis.     $2.50. 
The  Child,  its  Spiritual  Nature.     Lewis. 
The  First  Three  Years  of  Childhood.     Perez.     $1. 
The  Intellectual  and  Moral  Development  of  the  Child.     Com- 

payre.     $1.50. 


APPENDIX.  277 

The  Life  and  Educational  Works  of  John  Amos   Comenius. 

Laurie.     $1. 

The  New  Womanhood.    J.  C.  Fernald.     $1.25. 
The  Psychology  of  Childhood.     Tracy.     90  cents. 
Your  Little  Brother  James.     75  cents. 

The  following  short  list  is  specially  recommended  to  the 
careful  perusal  of  parents,  and  to  their  judgment  is  left  the  ad- 
visability of  passing  the  books  on  to  their  children: 
What  a  Young  Boy  Ought  to  Know.    S.  Stall,  D.  D.    $1. 
What  a  Young  Girl  Ought  to  Know.    M.  Wood-Allen.    $1. 
What  a  Young  Man  Ought  to  Know.    S.  Stall,  D.  D.    $1. 
What  a  Young  Woman  Ought  to  Know.    M.  Wood- Allen.    $1. 
Almost  a  Man.    M.  Wood-Allen.    25  cents. 
Almost  a  Woman.    M.  Wood-Allen.    25  cents. 

2.  Books  helpful  to  mothers  in  the  instruction  and  enter- 
tainment of  their  children. 
American  History  Stories.     Pratt.     Four  volumes.     Each,  36 

cents. 

Buz:  or  Life  and  Adventures  of  a  Honey  Bee.    Noel.      $1. 
Boys  and  Girls  in  Biology.    Stevenson.     $1. 
Century  Book  for  Young  Americans.     Brooks.     $1.50. 
Child's  Garden  of  Verses.     Stevenson.     $1. 
Child  Stories  from  the  Masters.     Menefee.     $1. 
Finger  Plays  for  Kindergarten  and  Nursery.     Poulsson.     $1.25. 
Five  books  by  Jane  Andrews.    Each,  50  cents. 

1.  Seven  Little  Sisters.     2.  Each  and  All.     3.  Stories  Mother 
Nature  told  her  Children.     4.  Ten  Boys  who  Lived  on  the. 
Eoad  from  Long  Ago  till  Now.     5.  Geographical  Plays. 
Greek  Heroes.     Kingsley.     50  cents. 
In  the  Child's  World.     Poulsson.     $2. 
In  Story  Land.     Harrison.     $1. 
Little  Knights  and  Ladies.     Sangster.     75  cents. 
Love  Songs  of  Childhood.     Field.     $1. 
Madam  How  and  Lady  Why.     Kingsley.     $1. 
Appletons'  Home  Reading  Books. 

Story  of  the  Birds.     Baskett.     65  cents. 
The  Plant  World.     Vincent.     60  cents. 
19 


278  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

Appletons'  Home  Reading  Books. 

The  Story  of  Oliver  Twist.     Kirk.     60  cents. 

In  Brook  and  Bayou.     Bayliss.     60  cents. 

The  Hall  of  Shells.     Hardy.     60  cents. 

Uncle  Sam's  Secrets.     Austin.     75  cents. 

Curious  Homes  and  their  Tenants.     Beard.     65  cents. 

Uncle  Robert's  Visit.     Parker.     50  cents. 

Harold's  First  Discoveries.     Troeger.     30  cents. 
Song  of  Life.     Morley.     $1.25. 
Stories  from  Birdland.     Chase.     30  cents. 
Stories  of  Colonial  Children.     Pratt.     80  cents. 
Stories  of  Great  Men.     30  cents. 
.Stories  of  Great  Inventors.     30  cents. 
^Stories  of  Industries.    Vols.  I  and  II.    Each,  40  cents. 
Stories  of  New  York.     40  cents. 
Stories  of  the  Red  Children.     Brooks.     30  cents. 
Story  of  Ulysses.     30  cents. 

'The  Story  of  a  Piece  of  Coal.     Martin.     40  cents. 
'Child's  Garden  of  Song.    William  L.  Tomlins.    $2. 
Songs  for  Little  Children.    Eleanor  Smith  and  Alice  H.  Putnam. 

Paper,  each,  $1.    Cloth,  $1.25. 

Song   Stories  for  the  Kindergarten,  by   Misses   Mildred   and 
Patty  HiU.     $1.25. 

CHILDREN'S  CLASSICS. 

jBooks  of  which  no  child  should  be  deprived. 

"Perhaps  it  is  reckless  to  be  so  decided  about  these  books, 
but  the  following  reasons  are  responsible: 

"  1.  Such  boots  asv&rabian  Nights,  Swiss  Family  Robinson, 
Robinson  Crusoe^v|3aron  Munchausen,  an<Jj.$ulliver's  Travels 
can  never  be  read  in  after  life  with  the  same  vim  and  enjoyment 
as  in  childhood.  And  they  really  are  part  of  the  foundation  of 
literature.  Allusions  to  Aladdin's  lamp,  Crusoe's  man  Friday, 
and  all  the  other  characters  are  met  with  daily,  and  it  becomes 
a  study  in  adult  life  to  trace  the  allusions — it  is  simply  recreation 
in  childhood. 

"  2.  Little  Women,  Little  Lord  Fauntleroy,  and  Donald  and 


Edition 


APPENDIX.  279 

Dorothy  are  beautiful  stories  of  home  life  and  devotion;  a  phase 
of  social  life  rendered  particularly  necessary  of  development  by 
the  independent  life  of  the  average  American  child. 

"  3.  Mrs. ,  Craik's  Fairy  Book,  Hawthorne's  Tales,  and  the 
Water  Babies  are  types  of  the  best  fairy  stories. 

"  4.  The  Jungle  Book,  Toto,  Black  Beauty,  and  the  Dog  of 
Flanders  are  animal  stories,  and  develop  kindness  and  a  friendly 
consideration  for  the  brute  creation." 

Little  Women.     L.  M.  Alcott.     $1.50. 

Arabian  Nights'  Entertainment.     $1. 

Little  Lord  Fauntleroy.     Mrs.  Frances  Burnett.     $2. 

Fairy  Book.     D.  M.  Craik.     90  cents. 

Robinson  Crusoe.     Defoe.     $1. 

Donald  and  Dorothy.     M.  M.  Dodge.    $1.50. 

Tanglewood  Tales.     Nathaniel  Hawthorne.     $1. 

Wonder  Book.    Nathaniel  Hawthorne.     $1. 

Tom  Brown's  School  Days.     Thomas  Hughes.     $1. 

Jungle  Book.     Eudyard  Kipling.     $1.5.0. 

Water  Babies.     Charles  Kingsley.     $1. 

Dog  of  Flanders.     Rame.     $1.50. 

Baron  Munchausen.     Raspe.     $1. 

Joyous  Story  of  Toto.     Laura  Richards.     $1.25. 

Black  Beauty.     Sewell.     $1. 

Gulliver's  Travels.     Swift.     $1. 

Swiss  Family  Robinson.     $1. 

Being  a  Boy.     C.  D.  Warner.     $1.25. 

Timothy's  Quest.     K.  D.  Wiggin.     $1. 

A  much  more  comprehensive  book  list,  embracing  the  fol- 
lowing headings,  is  in  course  of  preparation,  and  will  be  sent 
after  November  1st  to  any  one  inclosing  a  two-cent  stamp  with 
address: 

(a)  Stories  for  Young  Children. 

(b)  Poetry  for  Little  Folks. 

(c)  Stories  of  the  Home. 

(d)  Tales  of  Travel  and  Adventure. 

(e)  Romance. 


280  NATIONAL   CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

(f)  Myths,  Fables,  and  Fairy  Tales. 

(g)  Animal  Studies  (for  parents). 

(h)  Science,  Out-of-door  Books,  and  Stories  of  Animals, 
(i)  History,  Historic  Tales,  and  Biographies, 
(j)  Juvenile  Games. 

In  response  to  an  urgent  demand  to  supply  direct  from  our 
office  books  mentioned  in  our  list,  there  has  been  organized  a 
"  Book  Department,"  and  arrangements  made  to  fill  orders. 
This  is  done  to  promote  the  organization  and  educational  de- 
velopment of  mothers'  clubs  throughout  the  country. 

Clubs  will  be  given  a  liberal  discount. 

Individuals  ordering  not  less  than  five  books  will  also  be 
allowed  a  discount.  In  all  cases  postage  or  expressage  must  be 
prepaid. 

In  response  to  numerous  requests,  copies,  in  pamphlet  form, 
of  all  addresses  delivered  at  the  First  National  Congress  of 
Mothers  will  be  mailed  for  five  cents  each,  or  four  dollars  per 
hundred. 

Checks  for  less  than  one  dollar  not  accepted.  Sums  under 
that  amount  payable  in  postal  money  orders  or  stamps.  Checks 
or  money  orders  should  be  made  payable  to  Treasurer  National 
Congress  of  Mothers.  Price  must  accompany  orders,  and  be 
sent  to  Secretary  National  Congress  of  Mothers,  Washington 
Loan  and  Trust  Building,  Washington,  D.  C. 

Arrangements  have  been  made  to  issue  more  promptly  in 
future  the  report  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Congress. 

No  advertising  matter  of  any  kind  will  be  accepted. 

Price  of  Second  Edition,  in  paper  binding,  35  cents.  In 
cloth,  $1.15.  Postage  free. 


ADDENDA  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION. 


ALL  interested  in  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers  will  be 
glad  to  know  that  the  work  is  progressing  most  successfully. 

The  interest  manifested  has  been  both  general  and  enthusi- 
astic, scores  of  letters  of  inquiry  and  indorsement  having  been 
received  by  the  National  Secretary  at  headquarters  in  Washing- 
ton. In  a  word,  it  may  be  said  that  the  outlook  for  additional 
success  and  constantly  growing  influence  is  most  encouraging. 

Mrs.  Birney,  President  of  the  National  Congress  of  Mothers, 
has  returned  from  the  Pacific  coast  and  resumed  her  residence  in 
Washington,  and  is  devoting  herself  with  renewed  zeal  to  the 
work  of  the  Congress,  to  which,  in  this  her  time  of  deep  bereave- 
ment, she  has  consecrated  her  best  energies,  hoping  to  make  it 
her  life  work. 

Numerous  invitations  have  been  received  to  hold  Mothers' 
Congresses  in  various  cities  and  States,  but,  deeply  as  the  parent 
Society  appreciates  all  such  local  expressions  of  interest,  it  has 
thus  far  seemed  impossible  to  assist  in  inaugurating  local  con- 
gresses, as  the  work  of  the  National  Congress  claims  the  entire 
time  and  attention  of  the  National  officers. 

We  are  glad  in  this  connection  to  note  that  in  a  number  of 
States  (including  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  California,  Nebraska, 
Ohio,  Illinois,  and  others)  numerous  mothers'  clubs  have  been 
formed,  and  that  many  of  the  woman's  clubs  not  dedicated 
especially  to  mother's  interests  have  decided  to  devote  the  inter- 
vening months  before  the  next  Mothers'  Congress  to  the  study 
of  subjects  exclusively  pertaining  to  this  work. 

The  National  Congress  of  Mothers  does  not  appoint  State 
officers,  and  in  no  way  assumes  to  dictate  to,  direct,  or  control 

281 


282  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS. 

State  organization.  It  simply  requests  that,  in  order  to  avoid 
confusion,  if  the  word  "  congress  "  is  used  in  the  title  of  any 
such  organization  the  name  of  the  State  be  used  also,  as,  for 
example,  "  The  Mothers'  Congress  of  the  State  of  New  York," 
or  the  "  Pennsylvania  Mothers'  Congress/' 

The  secretaries  of  clubs  will  kindly  make  copies  of  the  fol- 
lowing, and  forward  with  answers  to  Mrs.  Louise  H.  Earle, 
Secretary  National  Congress  of  Mothers. 

Date  of  organization  of  club. 

Name  of  city  and  State. 

Name  of  club. 

Number  of  members. 

Club  meetings.     How  often? 

Average  attendance. 

How  many  children  are  represented  by  the  mothers  of  your 
club? 

Average  ages  of  the  children. 

.  Do  you  have  occasional  evening  meetings  which  the  fathers 
can  attend,  and  do  you  also  invite  to  such  meetings  ministers, 
educators,  and  others  interested  in  the  development  and  educa- 
tion of  children? 

If  so,  do  you  notify  them  in  advance  of  the  topics  selected 
and  invite  them  to  take  part  in  the  discussions? 

Has  the  club  a  library? 

If  so,  mention  titles  of  books. 

Give  list  of  subjects  discussed  in  the  past. 

Give  topics  proposed  for  future  study  and  discussion. 

Have  you  free  kindergartens  in  your  community? 

Have  you  day  nurseries  in  your  community? 

Leaflets  will  be  issued  from  time  to  time  in  answer  to  special 
queries  and  giving  reports  from  mothers'  clubs  organized 
throughout  the  country. 

It  is  therefore  requested  that  clubs  notify  us  promptly  of 
place  and  date  of  organization,  name  chosen,  names  of  officers, 
and  special  lines  of  work  proposed. 

Each  club  of  not  less  than  five  members  will  be  entitled  to 
a  delegate.  Clubs  of  twenty  members  or  more  will  be  entitled 
to  two. 


ADDENDA  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION.  283 

Delegates  attending  the  National  Congress  will  be  given 
badges  and  specially  accredited  seats  on  the  floor  of  the  house 
in  exchange  for  credentials. 

All  clubs  and  organizations  intending  to  send  delegates  will 
please  notify  the  National  Secretary  as  soon  as  practicable. 

The  next  Congress  will  be  International  in  character. 

It  is  the  earnest  wish  of  the  Association  that  all  who  have 
the  interests  of  childhood  at  heart,  whether  men  or  women, 
will  endeavor,  as  far  as  possible,  to  attend  the  sessions  of  the  next 
Congress,  to  be  held  in  Washington  in  May,  1898. 

It  is  also  hoped  that  all  mothers'  clubs  and  organizations  of 
any  kind  which  are  in  sympathy  with  this  movement  will  hold 
daily  meetings  in  their  respective  communities  during  the  week 
the  National  Congress  is  in  session,  and  at  such  conferences  will 
arrange  for  a  local  mass  meeting  to  be  held  upon  the  return  of 
the  delegates  from  "Washington. 

The  Congress  will  be  in  session  six  days. 

The  first  day  will  be  devoted  to  receiving  delegates,  dis- 
tributing badges,  hearing  reports  of  National  officers  and  five- 
minute  reports  from  clubs  represented. 

The  second  and  third  days  will  be  devoted  to  questions  bear- 
ing chiefly  upon  the  relations  of  mother  and  child. 

On  the  fourth  and  fifth  days  subjects  involving  the  duties  of 
both  parents  will  be  discussed. 

The  sixth  day  will  be  given  to  a  discussion  of  methods  to 
be  employed — from  the  individual,  social,  municipal,  and  na- 
tional standpoints — which  shall  give  to  the  child  both  before 
and  after  birth  such  conditions  as  shall  insure  to  each  successive 
generation  a  higher  type  of  humanity. 

General  receptions  will  be  held  on  the  first  and  final  even- 
ings of  the  Congress. 

The  Congress  has  no  official  organ,  nor  does  it  indorse  any 
particular  magazine.  There  are  so  many  helpful  periodicals 
already  in  the  field  pertaining  to  child  culture  that  it  would  be 
inadvisable  at  the  present  time  to  discriminate  in  favor  of  any 
special  one. 

We  think,  however,  that  it  would  be  greatly  to  the  interest 
of  all  magazines  devoted  to  child  culture  and  motherhood  to 


284  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OP  MOTHERS. 

work  with  us,  as  the  circulation  of  such  periodicals  must  be 
materially  increased  by  the  national  interest  stimulated  by  our 
work. 

At  the  next  Mothers'  Congress  an  opportunity  will  be  af- 
forded for  an  exhibition  of  books  and  periodicals  containing 
matter  germane  to  the  objects  of  the  Congress. 

Publishers  and  editors  desiring  to  avail  themselves  of  this 
offer  will  please  notify  the  National  Secretary  by  or  before 
March  15th,  sending  sample  copies  of  publications  which  they 
wish  to  exhibit. 

At  the  close  of  the  Congress  excursion  rates  may  be  ob- 
tained to  all  points  of  interest  around  Washington,  such  as 
Mount  Vernon,  Arlington  Heights,  Luray  Caverns,  Natural 
Bridge,  Old  Point  Comfort,  and  neighboring  cities. 

A  Bureau  of  Information  and  temporary  post  office  will  be 
established  in  the  building  where  the  Congress  is  held,  to  be 
open  from  8.30  A.  M.  to  10.30  p.  M. 

All  mail  for  delegates  and  visitors  can  be  addressed  "  Care 
National  Congress  of  Mothers,  Washington,  D.  C."  Accom- 
modations in  Washington  can  be  secured  by  delegates  applying 
in  advance  to  Mrs.  J.  H.  McGill,  Chairman  of  the  Committee 
on  Entertainment,  Le  Droit  Park,  D.  C. 

Eegistration  books  for  each  State,  alphabetically  arranged, 
will  be  at  the  Bureau  of  Information,  and  delegates  and  visitors 
can  through  this  medium  easily  learn  the  whereabouts  of  their 
friends. 

All  resolutions  upon  which  the  clubs  desire  the  Congress  to 
take  action  must  be  sent  to  the  office  not  later  than  April  1, 1898. 

The  expenses  of  the  Congress  during  the  past  have  been 
generously  met  by  Mrs.  Phebe  A.  Hearst,  who  has  also  con- 
tributed liberally  toward  the  future  work,  but  the  Board  of 
Managers  feel  that  the  time  has  come  when  the  public  should 
be  given  an  opportunity  to  aid  in  forwarding  this  movement. 
Accordingly,  a  fund  is  being  raised  which  is  called  a  Memorial 
Fund,  and  to  which  all  are  asked  to  contribute.  There  is  scarcely 
a  home  in  the  land  which  has  not  been  visited  by  the  Angel  of 
Death,  and  any  sum,  however  small,  sent  in  memory  of  a  de- 
ceased loved  one  will  be  gratefully  received  and  duly  recorded, 


ADDENDA  TO  THE  SECOND  EDITION.  285 

with  the  name  of  the  donor  and  the  one  in  whose  memory  it  is 
sent. 

Such  contributions  will  enable  the  Congress  to  continue  and 
enlarge  the  scope  of  its  work  for  childhood.  To  those  with 
ample  means  whose  hearts  have  been  bereft,  we  suggest  that 
they  make  an  additional  donation  for  the  purchase  of  traveling 
libraries  germane  to  this  work,  to  be  sent  to  such  clubs  as  can 
afford  but  a  meager  supply  of  books,  each  library  to  bear  the 
name  of  the  one  in  whose  memory  it  is  given.  A  special  com- 
mittee will  purchase  the  books,  and  see  that  the  libraries  are 
in  constant  use,  the  clubs  to  pay  charges  of  transportation  and, 
in  some  instances,  a  nominal  sum,  which  will  be  set  aside  to 
replace  such  books  as  become  too  worn  to  travel,  thus  rendering 
the  library  perpetual. 

The  donors  of  such  libraries  will  receive  an  annual  report, 
stating  the  number  of  clubs  to  which  the  library  has  been  sent 
during  the  year.  Copies  of  letters  conveying  information  from 
club  officers  as  to  the  work  accomplished  through  the  agency  of 
these  libraries  will  also  be  circulated. 

A  small  yet  helpful  library  can  be  purchased  for  five  dollars, 
while  larger  sums  would  enable  us  to  multiply  our  opportunities 
for  good. 

All  checks  or  money  orders  donated  to  either  of  the  above 
funds  should  be  made  payable  to  Treasurer  National  Congress 
of  Mothers,  and  addressed  to 

SECRETARY  NATIONAL  CONGRESS  OF  MOTHERS, 

WASHINGTON  LOAN  AND  TKUST  BUILDING, 
WASHINGTON,  D.  C. 

October,  1897. 


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